Press quotes

  • Fox aims to boost military ties with France
    Financial Times, 12 February 2010

    "Fox's speech will be viewed by European governments as positive.. , especially on engagement with France," said Clara O’Donnell of the Centre for European Reform. "But concerns about the EU's role as a bloc are still very much in his mind. The question... will be how much his concerns about the EU end up alienating France."

  • Europe vows to save Greece
    The Wall Street Journal, 12 February 2010

    Yet greater coordination of economic policy will necessarily happen, says Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a London think tank. "There will be for Greece and possibly Spain a loss of fiscal sovereignty - a two-tier Europe with the weaker countries having to accept outside tutelage" from sounder euro members as the price of financial support.

  • EU leaders vow to help Greece, but say it is too early for financial rescue
    The Washington Post, 12 February 2010

    "What they've basically done is say they will help Greece if it meets the terms of the plan to cut its deficit, but if it managed to do that, Greece wouldn't need any help," said Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform. "I certainly think they will come up with something more substantial. But today demonstrates that we may need a full-blown crisis in Greece before they are prepared to put money on the table."

  • High expectations behind admonishment
    China, People's Daily, 11 February 2010

    Jacques Delors, a three-term, ex-president of the European Commission (EC), said recently that the European Union (EU) would face a tough "choice" in the next few years, while Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, was more straightforward saying that Europe could possibly "fall apart" ['Is Europe doomed to fail as a power?' by Charles Grant, July 2009]. Their remarks have are in immense contrast compared to the elation brought by the entry into force of the "Lisbon Treaty"...

  • Europe vows to aid Greece, but is unsure of how to help
    New York Times, 10 February 2010

    "At this junction they will have to support Greece," Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform, said of Europe's politicians. "If you have encouraged the markets to believe that support is forthcoming and then it is not, we will see a backlash" in financial markets. Though Mr Tilford said the markets would ideally like to see some form of guarantee extended to Greek loans, he added that this would probably be too much for the government in Berlin.

  • Czech's in talks with host missile command centre
    The Prague Post, 10 February 2010

    "If Obama needed more evidence to back his shift, the failed test gives it to him," said Tomas Valasek, director of foreign policy and defence with the London-based Centre for European Reform.

  • Should Europe lift its arms embargo on China?
    Time, 10 February 2010

    Charles Grant, director of the London-based Centre for European Reform, published a paper last month arguing that Europeans need to agree on a single message in their dealings with China so that Beijing can't play a game of divide and conquer. At the same time, he said, the E.U. should "abandon the fiction of a 'strategic partnership,'" which cannot be meaningful with such divergent value systems, and focus on a limited number of issues on which China and the E.U. can find agreement.

  • Failure to reform fiscal rules could haunt euro zone
    Reuters, 10 February 2010

    "Right now there is nothing to force adjustment on Germany, whose surpluses are the flipside of the Greek deficits," said Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform. "I'm not sure we will see the changes that would prevent future crises. Countries with big trade surpluses first need to realise they are part of their problem."

  • Greek debt crisis hangs over Brussels economic summit
    Financial Times, 09 February 2010

    "The broad thrust of the agenda remains as valid today as it was back then [in 2000]," said Philip Whyte of the Centre for European Reform think-tank. "A decade on, many EU countries still suffer from low employment and low productivity. So residual barriers to intra-European trade need to be dismantled and more must be done to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation."

  • Germany is chastised for stance on nuclear arms
    New York Times, 08 February 2010

    In a report to be published Tuesday by the Centre for European Reform, in London, George Robertson, who served as NATO secretary general from 1999 to 2004, says Germany cannot remove the missiles and still expect to enjoy the protection of US nuclear forces. "For Germany to want to remain under the nuclear umbrella while exporting to others the obligation of maintaining it, is irresponsible," the report says. It is highly unusual for a NATO country’s government to announce that it wants to remove US nuclear weapons from its soil.