Press
16 'angry parents' lecture Greece
11 February 2012
The Wall Street Journal
Charles Grant, director of the CER, says he has believed for some time that Greece would leave the euro because there is no political will to enact the changes needed to keep it in. While he acknowledged the growing notion that a Greek exit wouldn't have serious repercussions for any other country, he said, "nobody can be quite sure."
Greece makes deal with banks, cuts wages to get debt relief
10 February 2012
USA Today
"What they are actually discussing is nowhere near enough," said Simon Tilford, chief economist at the CER in London. "Six months down the line, there will have to be another big haircut, and again and again, it will take years."
The Greek debt conundrum, explained
10 February 2012
The Christian Science Monitor
"Greece is trying to massively reduce its public borrowing without anything to offset these measures, like [devaluing] the currency," says Simon Tilford of the CER. "So the cuts in spending become self-defeating because the economy is contracting faster than they can implement cuts."
Between lots of rocks and hard places: Greece's bad options
07 February 2012
Time
"There is now broad agreement among eurozone donors and the IMF that Greece will not be able to squeeze more revenue out of an economy that is in its fourth year of recession," wrote Katinka Barysch, deputy director of the CER in a recent assessment.
Russia defends Syria at UN - Part of an anti-western foreign policy?
07 February 2012
Voice of Russia
James Reinl hosts a debate for VOR London with Aleksandr Nekrasov, Edward Burke, CER and Israel Shamir on Russia's protection of Syria's government in the UN Security Council, and asks whether Moscow simply has a knee-jerk reaction against Western policy goals.
What if the Germans are wrong?
06 February 2012
Mail Online
This fact was examined last week in a paper by Simon Tilford, chief economist at the CER (full disclosure, the CER receives an annual grant from the parent company of the Irish Daily Mail, as well as from a shed-load of other big corporates such as Shell, Boeing and Diageo). Mr Tilford notes that eurozone policy-makers advocate in particular that Italy and Spain should emulate the Baltic States and Ireland. They argue that 'these four countries demonstrate that fiscal austerity, structural reforms and wage cuts can restore economies to growth and debt sustainability.' ...
Austria far right leader hurt by "new Jews" comment
06 February 2012
Reuters
Katinka Barysch, deputy director of the CER, noted Strache's push to stop sending money to Brussels, hold referendums on rescue packages and create a two-speed eurozone resonates well with EU-skeptic Austrians.
The Greek austerity marathon
06 February 2012
BBC News
In a paper [Greece's real challenge] for the CER, Katinka Barysch cites numerous examples of where the Greeks have failed to deliver. The troika of the IMF, the EU and the ECB demanded that Greece shrink its public sector by only replacing one out of every five people retiring but "between early 2010 and mid-2011, the government added 20,000 people to the public sector payroll".
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
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
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
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
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...
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."