Opinion pieces

  • Why Barroso deserves another go, by Charles Grant
    The Guardian, 09 September 2009

    Next week the European parliament votes on whether to give José Manuel Barroso a second term as president of the European commission.

  • Missile strategy must not be seen as a retreat, by Tomas Valasek
    Financial Times, 09 September 2009

    There are mounting indications that Barack Obama will soon abandon plans to put missile defence bases in Poland and the Czech Republic. These have become one of the main bones of contention between Russia and the west.

  • Germany owes Afghanistan an explanation, by Tomas Valasek
    The Guardian, 09 September 2009

    Finger pointing is the defence of the concerned and the cornered. So it reflects very poorly on Nato that allies are bickering with one another over an attack that killed an unknown number of Afghan civilians last week.

  • Germany will not drive a European recovery, by Simon Tilford
    Financial Times, 01 September 2009

    The European Union’s biggest member goes to the polls in less than four weeks. Yet while Germany’s economic prospects rest precariously on a recovery in foreign demand, the campaign has been free of any real debate about the country’s extraordinary export dependence. This is worrying.

  • Is Ukraine fit for the EU?, by Tomas Valasek
    The Wall Street Journal, 24 August 2009

    The European Union just helped put together a consortium of international banks to offer Kiev up to $3.6 billion in loans to buy Russian gas.

  • How to make Europe's military work, by Charles Grant
    Financial Times, 16 August 2009

    The European Union is justly proud of its "soft power" – its prosperity, stability and commitment to multilateral institutions have won admirers the world over.

  • China - A hard turn, by Charles Grant
    Prospect, 07 August 2009

    The Uighur protests could strengthen the hand of China's hardliners - at a cost to us all writes Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform.

  • Economic liberalism in retreat, by Simon Tilford
    The New York Times, 16 July 2009

    Is the brief flowering of economic liberalism in Europe over? It is too soon to read the last rites, but the prognosis is not good.

    The financial crisis, the subsequent discrediting of the Anglo-Saxon economies and the passing of the most economically liberal European Commission there has ever been have put liberal economic thinking on the defensive.