• Opinion piece by Simon Tilford
    CER, 09 December 2011

    This week’s summit will do little to solve the fundamentals of this crisis. What has been agreed is definitely not a fiscal union, there is no agreement to close any of the institutional gaps in the eurozone, such as the lack of any real fiscal union or pan-eurozone backstop to the banking sector. Without these two things the crisis will continue to worsen.

  • Insight by Charles Grant, 09 December 2011

    The Brussels agreement on December 9th will weaken British influence in the EU and could damage the single market.

  • Opinion piece by Charles Grant
    Europaquotidiano, 08 December 2011

    «In questo momento mi pare si possa adattare ai leader europei quello che Churchill usava dire a proposito degli americani: si può sempre essere sicuri che facciano la cosa giusta, una volta che abbiano esaurito tutte le altre possibilità».

  • Insight by Simon Tilford, 08 December 2011

    The UK’s decision to marginalise itself by vetoing a new EU-27 treaty has dominated the post-summit media coverage. And for good reason – it could prove a big step towards UK withdrawal from the EU. However, the bigger question is whether the agreement reached at the summit will do anything to address the fundamentals of the euro crisis.

  • Opinion piece by Simon Tilford
    Channel 4 News, 05 December 2011

    As Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel discuss the eurozone debt crisis in Paris, economist  Simon Tilford tells Channel 4 News the single currency cannot survive in its present form.

  • Opinion piece by Katinka Barysch
    The Guardian, 05 December 2011

    While Merkel's vision for a fiscal union may not be the answer to all the eurozone's problems it could be a vital part of any solution.

  • Opinion piece by Simon Tilford
    The Times, 30 November 2011

    Britain’s unlikely status as a safe haven is more to do with Europe’s problems than our cuts.George Osborne likes to point at Britain’s record low borrowing costs — the Government can issue ten-year debt at just over 2 per cent — as proof of confidence in his stewardship of the economy.

  • Insight by Charles Grant, 30 November 2011

    France is backing Germany’s wish for a new treaty to enshrine strict budgetary discipline. In exchange, it hopes Germany will save the euro.