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Chief economist Simon Tilford, of the London-based Centre for European Reform, says insurance and air freight companies, along with delivery companies like United Parcel Service are also taking a hit. "Some of the most vulnerable people are actually some of the poorest. So, if we look at the exporters of produce, much of which is flown from East Africa to Europe and the US - they are going to be hit very, very hard," Tilford said.

"This is not a defining moment for the euro zone. What is concerning is that at every stage in recent weeks the EU has been resisting the inevitable and has been forced into action by financial markets," said Simon Tilford, an economic analyst at the London based Centre for European Reform think tank. "The immediate danger is averted but very little has been done to address longer-term problems. This is not a blueprint for additional crises. It might work for another small country like Portugal but not a big country like Italy or Spain."

"The Obama government has set out to form a closer political and economic relationship with China, raising fears in Europe that such a G-2 could further reduce Europe's influence in the world," the Centre for European Reform said in a recent study.

"The entire top military brass, including the chief of defense and all the services, were on the plane," said Tomas Valasek, of the Centre for European Reform. "If that is true, then you're looking at a situation, in effect, of the decapitation of the military services."

As Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform has told Left Foot Forward: ‘The European parliament has been one of the clear winners from the Lisbon treaty and is stronger now than it's ever been before. This is particularly true in relation to justice and home affairs issues, international security and environmental action. It is absolutely critical that whoever wins the British election is able to exert influence in the European parliament in Britain's best interests.'

It woud be "misguided" for the AKP to hastily adopt a new constitution now in an attempt to ensure its own political survival, writes analyst Katinka Barysch in an insight article for the Centre for European Reform. "Such a strategy may work, in the sense that it would prevent a 'judicial coup' against the government. But it would hardly assuage the concerns of those who suspect the AKP of using democracy as a means to pursue a hidden agenda of Islamisation," Barysch writes.

Berlin's line on Greece "is yet another example of German economic unilateralism," says Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a London think-tank. ..."German politicians and voters think more European integration means other countries grabbing German money," says Mr. Grant.

"Spain is going to pose a big problem. It is in all sorts of trouble about how it will increase growth. It lost a great deal of competitiveness, and costs have gone up," says Simon Tilford, an economist at the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank in London. "Any economy regarded as having poor growth prospects is going to struggle to borrow at affordable levels."