Press quotes

  • Europe and an inscrutable China
    The Economist, 21 January 2010

    Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform, a London based think-tank, says he and others who felt China was about to embrace multilateralism were guilty of "wishful thinking".

  • Haiti quake response exposes EU frailties
    EU Business, 20 January 2010

    "Haiti is a terrible tragedy. Nobody cares about inter-institutional infighting in the outside world, they just want to see what Europe's going to do," said Hugo Brady, analyst at the Centre for European Reform think-tank. ...Brady said: "There is really going to be a big institutional mess while people rumble around for two years. It's a bit of a land grab at the beginning."

  • The Greek tragedy deserves a global audience
    Financial Times, 19 January 2010

    Simon Tilford of the Centre for European Reform in London argued on these pages that it must be bailed out, instead. There are two other possibilities: Greece toughs it out; or Greece just defaults.

  • Bulgarian drops candidacy for European Commission
    International Herald Tribune, 19 January 2010

    Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform in London, said that Ms Jeleva's departure proves that the Parliament "has a real role to play for weeding out unacceptable commissioners." He added that Mr Barroso could not be blamed for accepting her candidacy, despite warnings that she faced a difficult confirmation hearing. "He doesn't have an intelligence service at his disposal," he said. "He has to accept what national capitals tell him. But it is very embarrassing for Bulgaria and for its prime minister."

  • A Greek crisis may well become Germany's problem
    The Times, 18 January 2010

    "I just think they can't do it, and their growth prospects are worse than the Government is predicting," Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said. "They need to make cuts, but the country has shown little or no ability to do it" — either to cut the pension costs and early retirement extracted by the unions, to cut waste in hospitals and defence or to curb rampant tax evasion in the private sector. Even if Greece made the cuts, that would push it into a slump and deflation; crippling for such a highly indebted country.

  • Greece faces EU grilling
    EU Business, 17 January 2010

    Some analysts are meanwhile questioning whether leaving Greece to default - another prospect aired in past weeks - would be all that beneficial. "Greece is just the starkest example of the problems facing economies that have lost competitiveness within the eurozone and now have weak public finances and poor growth prospects," Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform, wrote in the Financial Times on Friday. "Greece's problems cannot be solved by it alone," he argued.

  • Ukraine the loser as Viktors battle for Tymoshenko alliance
    Irish Times, 16 January 2010

    "Ukraine has gone from being a darling of the EU to a complete and utter nightmare," says Tomas Valasek at the Centre for European Reform think-tank. "A few years ago most EU states were convinced it should be in the European Union within a few years. All that has changed."

  • UK anxiety over influence in Europe after crisis
    BBC News, 15 January 2010

    "The crisis has made people question whether there is something wrong with the Anglo-Saxon model," said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform. His pro-European think-tank was the co-organiser of a conference in central London on Thursday to discuss the UK's role in the EU as the financial crisis recedes from memory.

  • Barnier wasn't dull but wasn't dangerous
    The Wall Street Journal, 15 January 2010

    European officials say they are conscious of the potential to do damage by loading one regulation atop another. But in a new paper, Philip Whyte of the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think-tank, says "little attention is being paid to the overall impact of all the proposed changes".

  • Chaotic Greek economy spells trouble for eurozone
    Radio Free Europe, 15 January 2010

    Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform in London, says that the case in particular of Greece poses a significant challenge to the eurozone. "On the one hand, they can't let Greece get away with pursuing unsustainable policies; on the other hand, at the same time they can't be too tough with the Greek government, because there is only so much the Greek government can do, there is already risk of social instability in Greece," Tilford says.