Press
Investors brace for bank verdict on EU plan
12 December 2011
The Wall Street Journal
"Britain is as isolated as it's ever been in the 25 years I've been following the EU," said Charles Grant, director of the pro-EU CER. "If I had to put money on it now, I think Britain will leave the EU in the next 10 years."
Follia,in cinque anni via dell'Ue
12 December 2011
Il Mattino
Londra. "Foolish". Assurda, dissennata, imprudente. La decisione presa da David Cameron preoccupa Simon Tilford, capo economista della prestigiosa think tank britannica Centre for european reform. La mossa del premier è incomprensibile, sostiene Tilford, e danneggerà la Gran Bretagna ma, in parte, anche la Ue.
Briten hadern mit der neuen isolation in Europa
12 December 2011
Frankfurter Allgemeine
"Cameron hat mit Kanonen auf Spatzen geschossen. Er hat die anderen verärgert, ohne für Großbritannien etwas zu gewinnen", urteilt Simon Tilford, Chefökonom des CER in der britischen Hauptstadt. ...
Semi-detached island nation faces EU isolation
12 December 2011
Reuters
"He's thrown some meat to the eurosceptics who like to see the British PM wielding the veto. (But) it is going to make it harder to defend British interests," said Simon Tilford of the CER. "Cameron has played a bad hand poorly.
Angela Merkel and the euro crisis: Women in leadership
12 December 2011
Newsweek
Katinka Barysch of the CER says "Now that the government talks about new treaties and institutions, it looks more in charge. Politically, the strategy is working: almost two thirds of Germans now approve of Merkel's management of the euro crisis."
Les dix points pour comprendre le nouvel accord européen
12 December 2011
La Tribune
"Nous sommes les grands perdants de cette affaire, ajoute Charles Grant, directeur du think tank CER. Notre position avait toujours été de dire: nous devons être à la table européenne, pour influer sur les réformes. Désormais, nous risquons d'être tout seuls."
Will David Cameron's veto protect the City?
12 December 2011
The Guardian
Simon Tilford, chief economist at the CER, told me: "I find it very hard to understand why the exercise of this veto is some kind of victory for the City. I don't think that's shared unanimously across the City."
Opportunity for Britain amid European uncertainty
12 December 2011
BBC News
As Simon Tilford, from the CER, pointed out, with debt brakes being written into national constitutions, austerity is being "hard-wired" into the framework of the EU.
Merkel's teutonic summit enshrines Hooverism in EU treaty law
11 December 2011
The Telegraph
"The agreement hard-wires pro-cyclical fiscal austerity into the institutional framework of the eurozone, with no quid quo pro to move gradually to debt mutualisation." said Simon Tilford from the CER.
Dave has played his ace, so he’d better win
11 December 2011
The Sunday Times
Or it could be that Britain’s future is the one sketched out by Charles Grant, director of the CER: "a disaster for the UK" that overturns decades of foreign policy.
Yes, Cameron got it right: Most voters agree with PM vetoing treaty changes - and half think we should now quit the EU
11 December 2011
Daily Mail
Charles Grant, director of the London based Centre for European Reform think-tank, said: "For the first time in the history of the EU, the Germans are now in charge."
Summit snippets
10 December 2011
Irish Times
Brussels-based Irish think-tanker Hugo Brady's take on the Cameron strategy: "If you're not at the table you're on the menu."
EU treaty: Bashing the Brits is an old habit in France that still boosts a politician’s popularity
10 December 2011
The Telegraph
"It's not so much a row as a divorce, a passing of the ways," says Charles Grant of the CER. "It's more fundamental because the survival of the euro is existential for Sarkozy. He, like the Germans, will do everything he can to ensure its longevity and Britain is not part of that."
La política de la silla vacía de Cameron divide a los británicos
10 December 2011
El Pais
Grant opina que el resultado de la cumbre "es un desastre para Reino Unido y además amenaza la integridad del mercado único". También él apoya las intenciones de Cameron de defender los intereses de la City, pero subraya que jamás Gran Bretaña ha perdido una votación en un asunto realmente vital para su industria financiera y que, con el veto, "el Gobierno no ha conseguido ningún tipo de protección para la City".
Britain stands alone as Cameron uses veto
10 December 2011
The Times
Charles Grant, director of the CER think-tank, said that the developments would prove to be a "disaster" for the financial sector. "I can't think of a worse outcome for the City," he added. The rest of the EU would form a caucus "and tell us what they have decided".
City warns Cameron veto may come back to haunt it
10 December 2011
The Independent
Hugo Brady, of the CER, warned: "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu."
How a deal may save the euro but not preserve Europe
10 December 2011
Time
"It is conceivable that a different British government could seek to reverse this disastrous opt-out," says Charles Grant, director of the CER. "More likely, Britain will continue on a path towards isolation, perhaps even leaving the EU itself."
Agreed-to EU pact sets stage for quantum leap in integration
10 December 2011
Los Angeles Times
"This is not primarily a fiscal crisis. It's basically a growth crisis, and there's nothing in this agreement that makes one any more optimistic about economic growth," said Simon Tilford of the CER in London.
Immediate summit reaction
09 December 2011
CER
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...
Spain's example shows limits of EU targets
09 December 2011
The Wall Street Journal
That may spell trouble, says Simon Tilford at the CER. Businesses may be unwilling to invest while the outlook for demand continues to be weak, he says.