EU banking unionPolitical Union Eurozone limits
  • What a banking union means for Europe
    Essay by Philip Whyte, 05 December 2012
    What a banking union means for Europe
  • Alice in euroland: What political union for the single currency?
    Insight by Philip Whyte, 09 October 2012
    Alice in euroland: What political union for the single currency?
  • Has the eurozone reached the limits of the politically possible?
    Insight by Simon Tilford, 12 July 2012
    Has the eurozone reached the limits of the politically possible?
  • Germany's brief moment in the sun
    Essay by Simon Tilford, 27 June 2011

    Four years ago, Germany was widely seen as the sick man of Europe, beset by weak economic growth, a fast-ageing population and a pervasive sense of angst about the future.
  • A smaller eurozone would be stronger
    Opinion piece by Charles Grant
    The Times, 20 June 2011

    A single European currency has the merit of encouraging trade and investment across frontiers, and thus growth. But countries with inflexible, badly-run economies should never have been allowed to join the euro. The sooner the eurozone shrinks, the sooner it will stabilise.
  • Compétitivité ou productivité pour relancer la croissance européenne?
    Opinion piece by Simon Tilford
    Les Echos, 20 June 2011

    Une mauvaise compréhension de ce que sont les moteurs de la croissance économique menace la reprise en Europe. Ses dirigeants sont obsédés par la compétitivité et paraissent croire sincèrement que prospérité rime avec excédent commercial.

  • Europe’s competitiveness trap
    Opinion piece by Simon Tilford
    Project Syndicate, 16 June 2011

    A flawed understanding of what drives economic growth has emerged as the gravest threat to recovery in Europe. European policymakers are obsessed with national “competitiveness,” and genuinely appear to think that prosperity is synonymous with trade surpluses.

  • Eurozone debt crisis: To restructure or not?
    Bulletin article by Philip Whyte, 01 June 2011

    In March, European leaders agreed a 'grand bargain' that was designed to restore flagging confidence in the eurozone. The deal, they hoped, would return the most troubled countries – Greece, Ireland and Portugal – to debt sustainability and prevent catastrophic contagion to other, larger economies such as Italy and Spain.

  • Greece and Portugal should both go gracefully
    Opinion piece by Simon Tilford
    Financial Times, 12 May 2011

    Even as the ink is drying on Portugal's European Union and International Monetary Fund bail-out agreement, evidence is mounting that last year's bail-outs of Greece and Ireland have failed. Far from improving their access to the financial markets, Greece and Ireland face record borrowing costs.

  • Debt restructuring will not end the euro crisis
    Insight by Simon Tilford, 09 May 2011

    Even as the ink is still drying on Portugal’s EU/IMF ‘bail-out’ agreement, it is becoming clear that Greece’s 2010 bail-out has failed to improve the sustainability of its public finances.
  • Is Germany flipping the bird at Europe?
    Opinion piece by Katinka Barysch
    The Guardian, 22 April 2011

    It would have caused a chuckle among British tabloid readers. In Germany (and Greece) it caused a storm. On February 22 2010, the German news magazine Focus published a cover that depicted the Aphrodite of Milos with an outstretched arm making a very rude gesture at its readers.