Press quotes

  • EU-ECB lock horns over IMF-style rescue fund
    Reuters, 08 March 2010

    "If the fund marks the start of recognition that there needs to be further political integration, then great. If it doesn't, all it will be is sticking plaster", said Simon Tilford, an analyst at the London-based Centre for European Reform.

  • Europe's superpower hopes dim
    Newsweek, 08 March 2010

    The simple truth is that the Lisbon Treaty can't re-create the EU as a superpower. Says Hugo Brady of the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think tank: "It is not personality that denotes power: it is money, guns, political will, and diplomatic influence. When the EU can deploy those efficiently, then other countries will sit up and listen."

  • IMF help for Greece is a risky prospect
    The New York Times, 04 March 2010

    "It would be damaging for the eurozone going forward because it would sow seeds of doubt about whether this is really a currency union, or just a group of countries that share a currency," said Simon Tilford, the chief economist of the Centre for European Reform in London.

  • Striking a better tone for a long-running debate
    European Voice, 04 March 2010

    One point is that weakening EU competition policy to support national champions is a non-starter given that the US, Japan and, increasingly, China itself are taking a cross-border view of antitrust enforcement. Then there is the economic downside. "Diluting either anti-trust policy or relaxing state-aid rules would undermine Europe's long-term economic prospects, not bolster them," says Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think-tank.

  • Saab looks to new horizons
    Defense News, 01 March 2010

    The global defence market could become tougher for Europe in the future, said Clara O'Donnell, an analyst at the Centre for European Reform, a London think tank. O'Donnell said she believes it will become more difficult for EU countries to compete for sales of high-end technology products, given the 7-to-1 ratio in research and development spending between the United States and the European Union. She said Europe and European companies should focus on innovative solutions that are not so high-tech.

  • European Union moves towards a bailout of Greece
    International Herald Tribune, 28 February 2010

    Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform, said that France and Germany recognised that some form of bailout was inevitable. But, he said, for a bailout to be sold to a skeptical German public, the Greeks first "have to be seen to be suffering."

  • The incredible shrinking Europe
    Time, 26 February 2010

    "The EU offers an attractive social, economic and political model," Charles Grant, director of the London-based think-tank the Centre for European Reform, argued last year. "It is more stable, safe, green and culturally diverse than most parts of the world, which is why neighbors want to join and many migrants aim for Europe."

  • Germany should remember what it's got from the euro
    The Wall Street Journal, 26 February 2010

    At a weekend conference discussing the lessons from the economic crisis, as much time was devoted to the prospect of Germany leaving the euro zone as there was to the "peripheral" countries of Greece, Portugal or Spain abandoning it. The conference of prominent economists, current and former officials and others was held at Ditchley Park, a stately home in the English countryside. To be sure, nobody was predicting any such exit is likely, certainly not in the short term.

  • Greek debt crisis affects Europe, world economy
    Voice of America, 26 February 2010

    Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform in London, says the Greek crisis reflects a larger economic problem in Europe. EU members like the Netherlands and Germany have spent too little and their economies are driven by exports. Meanwhile, southern economies like Greece and Portugal have spent too much and amassed debts as a result. "So in order to find a lasting solution, we need change on both sides.

  • Europe's bear problem: The trouble with the EU's attempts to woo Russia
    The Economist, 25 February 2010

    The "underlying assumption", writes Katinka Barysch in a new paper for the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think-tank, is that EU capital, technology and training might make Russia "more Western-oriented, open and easier to deal with."