Press

L'OTAN accélère son retrait d'Afghanistan

04 February 2012
Le Monde
Pour Edward Burke, chercheur du CER, à Londres, la décision française envoie "un signal politique clair à Kaboul" parce qu'elle est la première à indiquer que "la stratégie de l'OTAN n'a pas fonctionné" à l'égard d'un régime qui reste "inefficace et corrompu".

Why European diplomacy is in decline

03 February 2012
E!Sharp
Critics of the EU's External Action Service (EEAS) agree that its creation will hardly be remembered as a high point in the annals of European foreign policy. Some say that the EU's quasi-diplomatic corps does not yet work well because its leadership, under Baroness Cathy Ashton, suffers from inexperience and...

Markets lukewarm as EU summit fails to break ground on debt

Simon Tilford
01 February 2012
The National
"The reason why most governments signed up to this [pact], despite having very strong reservations about it, was because they thought it was a necessary evil in order to persuade Germany to move on other fundamental problems," said Simon Tilford, from the CER in London.

Merkel may have got her way with treaty agreement, but at what cost?

31 January 2012
The Irish Times
"This treaty is no use economically, and the idea that you can impose fiscal rules and pro-cyclical policies, and remove room to manoeuvre, is laughable," said Charles Grant, director of the CER think-tank.

EU leaders set to admit austerity is not enough

Simon Tilford
29 January 2012
The New York Times
"Even countries with relatively strong public finances such as Germany — the country's budget deficit fell to just 1 per cent of GDP in 2011 — are tightening fiscal policy," Simon Tilford, the chief economist for the CER in London, wrote recently.

Deficit focus questioned as answer to euro crisis

Simon Tilford
28 January 2012
Associated Press
Simon Tilford of the CER draws an analogy with US insurer AIG, which was bailed out by the US federal government in 2008. AIG was incorporated in the US state of Delaware, yet Delaware did not go bankrupt handling the rescue. The central government stepped in.

Merkel and Sarkozy forge unlikely - and unequal - partnership

27 January 2012
Deutsche Welle
"They really are chalk and cheese," says Charles Grant, director of the CER. "She is sober, dull, pragmatic, serious, uninspired, un-visionary. He is impatient, mercurial, full of energy, visionary on a good day - but maddeningly annoying to deal with!"

The European fallacy of Ireland and the Baltics

Ambrose Evans-pritchard
27 January 2012
The Daily Telegraph
Another excellent paper by Simon Tilford from the Centre for European Reform.

Eurozone policy-makers – from President Sarkozy and Wolfgang Schäuble to the former President of the ECB, Jean-Claude Trichet – advocate that Italy and Spain should emulate the Baltic states and Ireland. These four countries, they argue, demonstrate...

Nicolas Sarkozy, au-delà du bling-bling, vu par "The Guardian"

25 January 2012
Le Monde
"Il se trouve dans une position très difficile, rappelle Charles Grant du CER. Pour la première fois dans l'histoire de l'UE, la France n'est pas en mesure de tirer les ficelles." L'Allemagne, souligne Grant, a peut-être "eu le dessus dans la plupart des discussions clé"

Nicolas Sarkozy – the view from Britain

25 January 2012
The Guardian
"He's in a very difficult position," said Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform. "For the first time in the EU's history, France isn't pulling the strings."

Merkel masters markets with euro austerity

24 January 2012
Reuters
Spending cuts won't solve the euro's problems "and Germany is making it all a lot worse," Charles Grant, director of the  CER, said in an interview.

EU faces struggle to bridge divide with Britain

20 January 2012
Reuters
"What are the reasons for British euroscepticism? History (World War II), geography (Britain is an island nation) and newspaper groups that want Britain to leave the EU," said Charles Grant of the CER. "And, for the past year or so, Michel Barnier."

France threatens to remove troops in Afghanistan

20 January 2012
NPR
Edward Burke with the CER says "the French decision today reflects a deep frustration amongst many coalition partners that they don't feel that they're making the progress that perhaps has been widely reported in Brussels by NATO and in Washington."

Brussels poised to step up action on Hungary

19 January 2012
Financial Times
"In Hungary's case, it's a conversation that's been waiting to happen for quite some time," says Hugo Brady of the CER. But he said it was highly unlikely that member-states would follow up the European parliament's request to punish Budapest.

Germany's military future is vital for Europe

Tomas Valasek
19 January 2012
Defence Management Journal
Tomas Valasek, Director of Foreign Policy and Defence at the Centre for European Reform, argues that Germany's next step following its refusal to participate in Libya may be crucial for European defence…

The world's biggest military power, the United States, has announced it is to focus westward on the...

Europe bites the bullet, ditches worker privileges in reforms devised to fight debt crisis

Simon Tilford
18 January 2012
The Washington Post
"There’s no doubt that some of the reforms we’re now seeing of labour markets in some (European Union) states are long overdue," said Simon Tilford, of the CER.

Analysis: Credit downgrades put onus on Germany

Simon Tilford
16 January 2012
USA Today
The downgrade "certainly reinforces the relative weakness of France to Germany in the current context," said Simon Tilford of the CER. "However, what it also does is isolate Germany."

Downgrade of debt ratings underscores Europe's woes

Simon Tilford
13 January 2012
The New York Times
"It will make it harder to erect firewalls around struggling euro zone economies and convince investors that things are more sustainable," said Simon Tilford, the chief economist for the CER in London.

Is a breakaway Scotland brave or foolhardy?

12 January 2012
Reuters
Hugo Brady of the CER think-tank and a former Irish government official, said the SNP's assumption of automatic membership "would be a very difficult ask because it would set a precedent for other new members that might join."

End of an affair? City of London and EU in bitter acrimony

Philip Whyte
12 January 2012
Yale Global
The global financial crisis has had a seemingly odd impact on relations between the City of London, the United Kingdom and the European Union. Before the crisis, the dominant assumption in Britain was that what was good for the City, Europe's largest financial center, was good for the UK and...