Britain not SwissSaving the euroGermany’s own goal
  • Britain should not go Swiss
    Insight by John Springford, 10 July 2012
    Britain should not go Swiss
  • Needed: A Franco-German concordat
    Insight by Charles Grant, 27 June 2012
    Franco-German discord
  • Germany's own goal: Why Berlin's sense of invulnerability will be its undoing
    Insight by Simon Tilford, 22 June 2012
    Germany’s own goal
  • Sarkozy, secularism and Turkey’s European future
    Bulletin article by Katinka Barysch, 01 June 2007

    Can things get worse for Turkey? The presidential election is stalled; the army threatens to intervene; millions are protesting in the streets; EU negotiations remain partly suspended; terrorism in the South-East could prompt military forays into northern Iraq; and the new French president wants to see Turkey in a Mediterranean Union but not in the EU.
  • Nicolas Sarkozy: Turkophobe and protectionist?
    Insight by Charles Grant, 08 May 2007

    Most EU governments wanted Nicolas Sarkozy to win the presidential election. They think his liberalising economic agenda stands a fair chance of boosting France’s lacklustre economic performance.
  • What future? France's Socialist party needs a rethink
    Opinion piece by Charles Grant
    The Guardian, 07 May 2007

    France's Socialist party needs to rethink its identity and its strategy. Having lost three presidential elections in a row, the party needs to learn from centre-left parties not only in Britain, but also in Italy, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries and Spain.
  • Sarkozy - the new Napoleon
    Opinion piece by Charles Grant
    The Guardian, 23 April 2007

    As a former activist in the French Socialist Party, it pains me to welcome the success of a right-wing populist in the first round of the presidential election. But I think that a Nicolas Sarkozy victory may be the best outcome for France and for Europe.
  • Britain would be unwise to thwart Europe's treaty
    Opinion piece by Charles Grant
    Financial Times, 03 April 2007

    Germany's ambition to salvage large parts of the European Union constitutional treaty may provoke a serious rift between Britain and its partners. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown may be heading for a collision over what to do about the German plan. But the general view in Britain seems to be that EU treaty change is irrelevant.
  • The view from 2027
    Briefing note by Charles Grant, 22 March 2007

    Given how much respect and esteem most Europeans feel for the EU today, one can easily forget that when it celebrated its 50th birthday, in 2007, it was widely disliked and mistrusted.

  • In defence of missile defences?
    Insight by Tomas Valasek, 14 March 2007

    For those spoiling for another good transatlantic fight, the headlines from last week’s EU summit must have come as manna from heaven.
  • Get with it, Europe
    Opinion piece by Simon Tilford
    The International Herald Tribune, 09 March 2007

    It is seven years since the European Union launched its Lisbon agenda of economic reforms aimed at transforming the competitiveness of the European economy by 2010. Despite the pessimism, there has been much to cheer.