Press quotes

  • Most EU hopefuls face long wait to membership
    Reuters, 01 February 2010

    Accession is unlikely for years for all but Croatia and Iceland. "Stefan Fuele actually has some low-hanging fruit," said Katinka Barysch from the Centre for European Reform think-tank. "He starts his job by getting Croatia in fairly quickly. He's got Iceland. Fantastic. He gets two countries in. All the other countries are simply too far away from being ready."

  • Arms to Taiwan, and a course correction in Asia?
    Foreign Policy, 01 February 2010

    As this excellent Washington Post analysis by John Pomfret describes, China's pique at the Taiwan arms sales is of a piece with its growing chest-thumping. The article cites a new study by the Centre for European Reform, How should Europe respond to China's strident rise? and includes a bracing quote from author Charles Grant about China's treatment of European overtures: "The Europeans have competed to be China's favored friend, but then they get put in the doghouse one by one."

  • China laat niet op zijn kop zitten
    De Standaard, 01 February 2010

    Charles Grant in een artikel voor het Centre for European Reform – Grant merkt daarbij op dat ook de Europese Unie haar naïeve optimisme over een geleidelijke 'verwestersing' van China mag opbergen en zich dringend moet bezinnen over een nieuwe aanpak.

  • China's strident tone raises concerns among Western governments
    The Washington Post, 31 January 2010

    The unease over China's new tone is shared by Europeans as well. 'How should Europe respond to China's strident rise?' is the title of a new paper from the Centre for European Reform. Just two years earlier, its author, institute director Charles Grant, had predicted that China and the European Union would shape the new world order. "There is a real rethink going on about China in Europe," Grant said in an interview from Davos.

  • Still free lessons for Bulgaria or the Eurozone as a sanctuary
    EU inside, 30 January 2010

    Charles Grant from the Centre for European Reform in London asked a very interesting question: "It is very difficult to see which government, no matter how talented or wise it is, how it will succeed to reform the political and social structures which prevent economic reforms, budget consolidation, the increase of productivity.

  • L'Echo de Davos: Nicolas Sarkozy provoque le Tout-Davos
    La Croix, 27 January 2010

    Charles Grant, fin connaisseur de l'UE, salue "le plus éloquent dirigeant européen du moment". Bien sûr, le discours a "des relents populistes" mais il est " intellectuellement cohérent", souligne-t-il, pour aussitôt rappeler l'incohérence avec certains faits. "Sarkozy dénonce le protectionnisme mais défend les usines en France comme Renault à Flins".

  • EU sees dreams of power wane as 'G-2' rises
    The Wall Street Journal, 27 January 2010

    "The EU's attempts to be a coherent international actor seem to be decreasingly effective," says Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a pro-EU London think-tank. ...China and Russia see the world in totally realist, zero-sum terms," says Mr Grant, adding: "If we want China to take us seriously we have to have hard power," or the ability to twist arms through economic, military or other means.

  • 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.