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IRISH TIMES
13 January 2009
"There are always question marks placed over small member-states’ EU presidencies before they start, principally about whether they will have the capacity to cope with a crisis," says Hugo Brady of the CER. "But this ignores the fact there have been plenty of bad big country EU presidencies."
REUTERS
13 January 2009
The aim is to ease concerns that the wealthy state-backed funds may sometimes use their trillions of dollars to make politically rather than economically motivated investments. "We have to give people the benefit of the doubt until we see evidence to the contrary," David O’Sullivan, head of the European Commission’s trade unit, told a CER seminar. "It would be foolish to become protectionist, particularly when the economy faces severe problems."
TIME
9 January 2009
"Today, the Europeans will hopefully focus on what they can do together to increase their energy security," says Katinka Barysch of the CER. "They also need to reinforce their efforts to achieve their 20 per cent energy savings target and explore alternative sources of power, namely renewables and nuclear. If the gas standoff reminds the Europeans of the importance of such measures, Russia and Ukraine will have done the EU a favour." Even if that favour was rather chilly.
EUROPEAN VOICE
8 January 2009
The EU’s foreign policy chief has shown impeccable timing: he began the year by appointing a personal adviser on energy and foreign-policy issues. Steven Everts, whose brief will include climate change as well as energy security, has been working in Solana’s cabinet as an adviser since January 2005. Before that he worked for the CER, a London-based think-tank.
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
6 January 2009
Clara O’Donnell of the CER said that with its visits [to the Middle East], the EU might also have exacerbated its image as not being able to sing from the same hymn sheet. It appears that "the EU is not speaking with one voice with two delegations going [to the region] at the same time," she said, and above all "does not have much to offer."
THE ECONOMIST
30 December 2008
A 2006 report from the CER concluded that Italy could follow three paths. It could continue to muddle through as the euro area’s slowest-growing economy; it could introduce reforms to tackle its poor productivity and high labour costs; or it could leave the euro, default on its euro debts and devalue its currency. Two years on, Simon Tilford, the author, reckons that with deep recession and ballooning budget deficits on the horizon, muddling through is no longer an option. He also thinks Italy’s exit from the euro cannot be ruled out.
THE AGE [AUSTRALIA]
23 December 2008
"For all his faults, Sarkozy brought a degree of political energy and leadership that the EU was sorely in need of," said Philip Whyte of the CER.
TIME
18 December 2008
"Until now, it was not obvious how to resolve Guantánamo," says Tomas Valasek of the CER. "The Portuguese initiative neatly allows the US to tie up the loose ends. It’s brilliant: it allows the US to do something the Europeans had always wanted it to do. It also makes the EU look proactive, showing it is not just waiting for the Obama Administration to come in and set the pace."
THE ECONOMIST
18 December 2008
Charles Grant, director of the CER, reckons it is "more likely than not that we’ll have a Lisbon treaty". If so, he says, the EU will be able to get on with serious issues instead of fretting about its own internal workings.
DER SPIEGEL
11 December 2008
Katinka Barysch of the CER, says [about disagreements on climate change targets] that Germany has begun focusing more on its national interests than it has in the past. "In Berlin they are saying, ‘If France can so blatantly do whatever works for France and Italy can do what’s best for Italy and Britain is a reluctant European in any case, then why are we expected to be the good Europeans all the time?’"
THE TIMES
11 December 2008
"On a broad range of issues the Germans seem to think the European Union no longer advances their interests and are more prone to go their own way," said Charles Grant of the CER. "In Brussels, Paris, Washington and other capitals, one increasingly hears the same complaint: Germany is acting unilaterally."
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