Europe ministers reach deal on trillion-dollar 'firewall'

Europe ministers reach deal on trillion-dollar 'firewall'

Press quote (Voice of America)
Simon Tilford
30 March 2012

Simon Tilford is chief economist at the CER. He says Europe's reaction to its economic crisis is not working. What is needed, he says, is a federalized system where resources cross borders more freely. "I think what needs to happen is that the governments need to accept that a currency union requires a much closer degree of integration than they have been hitherto prepared to acknowledge. So they need some kind of federal budget - the kind of federal budget that effectively transfers funds between the states of the US, for example" said Tilford.