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
  • Look who's sclerotic
    Opinion piece by Simon Tilford
    International Herald Tribune, 28 September 2009

    A popular Continental misconception about Britain is that it is some kind of ultra-free economy where there is limited social welfare and where the market has been introduced into every aspect of life.
  • Warsaw warms to Moscow
    Opinion piece by Tomas Valasek
    The Guardian, 18 September 2009

    Tabloids make a poor guide to understanding a country's policy. While the newspaper headlines in Poland and the Czech Republic scream of the US "betraying" eastern Europe by cancelling missile defence bases there, the official reaction in Warsaw and Prague has been muted.
  • Germany will not drive a European recovery
    Opinion piece 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.
  • Carl Bildt and the cost of speaking plainly
    Insight by Charles Grant, 21 July 2009

    Carl Bildt is better known throughout the world than most of his fellow EU foreign ministers – and many of the prime ministers, too.
  • The Swedish EU presidency
    Briefing note by Charles Grant, Clara Marina O'Donnell, Hugo Brady, Katinka Barysch, Philip Whyte, Simon Tilford, 01 July 2009

    A painful recession in Europe, uncertain prospects for the Lisbon treaty, a looming gas crisis in Ukraine and a lame-duck Commission are some of the challenges that the Swedish EU presidency will have to deal with in the second half of 2009.

  • EU politics after the elections
    Insight by Hugo Brady, 10 June 2009

    EU policies were not the issue that guided most voters in last week’s elections to the European Parliament. The economic crisis and job safety were uppermost in people’s minds.
  • Guest column: Spain's muted EU voice
    Opinion piece by Charles Grant
    Financial Times, 09 June 2009

    There are several paradoxes about Spain’s global role. Its business leaders have built up many world-beating companies, but its politicians tend to be parochial.
  • Por qué pesa poco España?
    Opinion piece by Charles Grant
    ABC.es, 08 May 2009

    El papel de España en la UE encierra una extraña paradoja. Aunque se trata de uno de los Estados miembros más europeísta, es el que menos influencia tiene de los seis países más grandes. Pero esto no siempre ha sido así.