Press
Economist Sinn rattles Merkel laboring to save euro
06 September 2012
Bloomberg Businessweek
"Economists like Hans-Werner Sinn have contributed to a climate in which the German government has felt constrained in what it can agree at a eurozone level," says Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform in London.
Peut-on croire Draghi?
05 September 2012
Les Echos
LE CERCLE. Mario Draghi, le président de la Banque Centrale Européenne, a affirmé à plusieurs reprises que la BCE ferait tout ce qui est nécessaire pour sauver l'euro.
Can Draghi be believed?
03 September 2012
Project Syndicate
LONDON – Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, has repeatedly claimed that the ECB will do everything necessary to save the euro.
German court holds eurozone fate in its hands
03 September 2012
Reuters
Katinka Barysch of the Centre for European Reform said this debate "suits both the opposition and government", giving the Social Democrats an easy platform and enabling Merkel to "put off hard decisions until after the 2013 election".
Britain and Europe going through gradual disengagement
03 September 2012
EurActiv
What is now clear, as others such as the Centre for European Reform have concluded, is that Britain is increasingly losing the support of its natural soulmates in East and Central Europe, nearly all of whom remain outside the euro and who have generally shared a more eurosceptic approach than the federalist core.
Unione politica il traguardo e non l'alibi per stare fermi
02 September 2012
Il sole 24 Ore
Ho appena letto la nota di Katinka Baysch, vice-direttore del CER di Londra, che il 29 agosto segnala sul sito dello stesso Cer il duplice rischio che l'Europa dell'Spd appaia ai tedeschi la "transfer union" che essi non accettano e agli europei del Sud...
Weidemann resignation report turns up heat on ECB's Draghi
31 August 2012
The Guardian
Simon Tilford of the CER said that to have a significant impact on Italian and Spanish borrowing costs, the ECB plan must banish investor concerns that the two countries' membership of the eurozone would ever be threatened. "Unfortunately, the ECB is highly unlikely to do enough to convince investors that membership is unequivocally forever, not least because the Bundesbank opposes any open-ended commitment to cap borrowing costs."
Let the Bundesbank chief resign if he wants to, it'll be no bad thing
31 August 2012
The Daily Telegraph
The problem has been brilliantly summarised by Simon Tilford, of the CER, in his latest blog. Here's just a taste. "Countries facing depressions and rapidly weakening inflation typically face very low borrowing costs: investors invest in government bonds for a want of profitable alternatives. ..
Ukraine turns to China for cash to duck vote-damaging deal terms
30 August 2012
Bloomberg
"Ukraine is trying to avoid the conditionality that comes with EU, IMF or Russian money," said Tomas Valasek of the CER in London. "Europe wants reform and transparency in the energy sector and Russia wants control of key industries. That creates political difficulties before the elections."
Can imagination save the eurozone?
30 August 2012
Market Watch
Hugo Brady of the Centre for European Reform, recently proposed the concept of a political union with a 15-year expiration date, giving European citizens the ability to cede powers to a federal center but only for a fixed period. Could it work? Could a bit of imagination save the European Union? Let’s hope so, because, as McNamara warned, logic may not.
Europe contracts, concerns widen
14 August 2012
The Wall Street Journal
"There's no doubt that some countries have no option but to pursue tight fiscal policies at the moment, but the extent of fiscal austerity across the euro zone as a whole is counter-productive," said Simon Tilford of the CER.
Solving inflation divide crucial step for euro
14 August 2012
Market Watch
"Assuming inflation falls to zero in Spain, Italy and the peripheral trio, and averages around 2% in France and the Benelux trio, it follows that inflation in Germany (plus Austria and Finland) will need to rise to around 4%," Simon Tilford, chief economist at the CER wrote in a recent blog post.
The Great British Brexit
10 August 2012
BBC News
It's summed up in a quote from Philip Whyte of the CER: "Three views of the UK are now common across Europe: that it is unreliable and unconstructive; that it is an active distraction from solving the region's worst crisis since World War Two; and that it appears to be heading for the EU's exit door".
Une troisième option pour l'Europe: une union politique qui ne durerait que 15 ans
03 August 2012
Express.be
L'euro est un Frankenstein qui pourrait détruire son créateur", affirme Hugo Brady, chercheur au Centre for European Reform, qui a également collaboré comme consultant pour la Commission Européenne et la Chambre des Lords britanniques.
Prospects for deeper Visegrád defence collaboration
01 August 2012
CEPA
The May NATO Summit in Chicago ended with a call on member states to spend their money on the right priorities, to seek economies of scale in collaboration and to start specializing instead of duplicating each other's efforts.
Skies growing cloudy for Anglo-French UAV project
28 July 2012
Defence News
Tomas Valasek of the Centre for European Reform, wrote in a recent article that while the British government and the previous French administration saw it as an exclusively bilateral affair, the new administration views UAV co-operation as the core of a wider European effort.
Balkan democracies fray as anti-austerity boosts Orban followers
26 July 2012
Bloomberg Business Week
Government moves in Hungary and Romania "suggest to me that this is still a generation that doesn’t have democratic instincts in their blood," Tomas Valasek of the CER, said July 18 by phone. "It takes more for the generational change to cycle some of the old politicians out of the system."
Greek dilemma: New terms, or exit
25 July 2012
The Wall Street Journal
"We're talking about the troika as if it's a monolith, but I'm beginning to wonder if there aren't disagreements cropping up," said Philip Whyte, senior research fellow at the CER, a think-tank in London.
Miliband and Hollande 'turning tide against austerity'
24 July 2012
Politics.co.uk
The British government's focus on consolidating the public finances and push through supply-side reforms is at odds with the new French president's instincts, according to Philip Whyte, a senior research fellow at the CER. "France is almost at the opposite end of that debate," he told politics.co.uk.
Cameron's EU stance is unsustainable and the sceptics know it
19 July 2012
New Statesman
For further reading on UK relations with the EU, by far the best thing published recently is this excellent CER pamphlet 'The continent or the open sea: Does Britain have a European future?' by David Rennie of the Economist.