Single market, competition & trade
Debate: Should we feel sorry for Greece?
07 November 2011
BBC News
Greece is at the eye of the storm gathering over the world economy, and threatening to tear the eurozone apart. But should the rest of us be sorry for Greece, or angry? Here, two experts present opposing arguments for and against sympathy.
AGAINST SYMPATHY - Nicholas Walton, European Council on...
AGAINST SYMPATHY - Nicholas Walton, European Council on...
Interview: La ricetta anticrisi della Germania è illogica
20 October 2011
La Repubblica
Per l'economista del Centre for European Reform l'idea di Berlino che i paesi dell'Europa meridionale debbano "vivere con i propri mezzi" è moralistica e controproducente. Le politiche restrittive peggiorano la situazione. L’aiuto cinese non serve.
Simon Tilford è capo economista del Centre for European Reform. Nei suoi interventi degli ultimi due...
Simon Tilford è capo economista del Centre for European Reform. Nei suoi interventi degli ultimi due...
Eurozone 'outs' must stick up for the single market
12 October 2011
Financial Times
One of the European Union’s greatest achievements has been to scrap non-tariff barriers to trade in goods and services. But the “single market” remains incomplete and faces new threats. The European commissioner responsible for it is blocking further liberalisation of services – even though the Commission as a whole is...
Resuscitating the euro
07 October 2011
The National Interest
For almost two years, the eurozone has been stricken with a potentially fatal malaise. Three crises have intermingled and reinforced each other: Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain face crises of excessive debt (public and private); those same countries suffer from anemic economic growth; and much of the European Union is afflicted with a banking crisis.
Europe doesn’t lack funds, just political will
26 September 2011
Financial Times
The following article was written in response to 'Only the IMF can solve eurozone crisis' by Ragharam Rajan, published in the Financial Times, 26 September 2011.
Het einde van de euro
25 September 2011
NRC Weekend
De beleidsmakers van de eurozone, en vooral de Duitsers en de Nederlanders, zijn niet in staat gebleken uit te stijgen boven hun overmoed en morele betweterij, zodat de eurozone maar heel weinig munitie heeft om de komende financiële storm te trotseren.
Book review - Innovation in Europe lacks 'creative destruction': CER report states
08 September 2011
EurActiv
European innovation policies lack the "creative destruction" widely accepted in the US, raising barriers for businesses seeking to find new ideas and applications, according to a report compiled by the Centre for European Reform, a British think-tank.
In the report, entitled 'Innovation: How Europe can take off',
...
In the report, entitled 'Innovation: How Europe can take off',
...
La via maestra degli eurobond
10 August 2011
Il sole 24 Ore
Le debolezze istituzionali dell'eurozona sono state messe a nudo. Il tentativo di attuare una politica monetaria comune senza un Tesoro comune è fallito.
Eurobonds or bust
08 August 2011
Project Syndicate
The eurozone’s institutional weaknesses have been laid bare. The attempt to run a common monetary policy without a common treasury has failed.
A real threat of stagnation
08 August 2011
The Voice of Russia
In Europe, or in the US more particularly, we are seeing investors are losing confidence in the ability of various economies, various governments to service their debts.
European leaders must step up their game
11 July 2011
Financial Times
George Soros is right that Germany's new approach to Europe bears some responsibility for the eurozone crisis. Germany's leaders are finding it hard to consider broader European rather than immediate national interests.
A smaller eurozone would be stronger
20 June 2011
The Times
A single European currency has the merit of encouraging trade and investment across frontiers, and thus growth. But countries with inflexible, badly-run economies should never have been allowed to join the euro. The sooner the eurozone shrinks, the sooner it will stabilise.
A country such as Greece with large budget and...
A country such as Greece with large budget and...
Compétitivité ou productivité pour relancer la croissance européenne?
20 June 2011
Les Echos
Une mauvaise compréhension de ce que sont les moteurs de la croissance économique menace la reprise en Europe. Ses dirigeants sont obsédés par la compétitivité et paraissent croire sincèrement que prospérité rime avec excédent commercial.
Europe’s competitiveness trap
16 June 2011
Project Syndicate
A flawed understanding of what drives economic growth has emerged as the gravest threat to recovery in Europe. European policymakers are obsessed with national “competitiveness,” and genuinely appear to think that prosperity is synonymous with trade surpluses.
Greece and Portugal should both go gracefully
12 May 2011
Financial Times
Even as the ink is drying on Portugal's European Union and International Monetary Fund bail-out agreement, evidence is mounting that last year's bail-outs of Greece and Ireland have failed. Far from improving their access to the financial markets, Greece and Ireland face record borrowing costs.
Why Germany is not a model for Europe
10 November 2010
Der Tagesspiel
Germany's economy has been winning numerous plaudits of late. It is not hard to see why. Previously much-vaunted economies "Ireland, Spain, the UK and the US, to name just four" lived way beyond their means for far too long.
David Cameron's budget fight remains an EU sideshow
29 October 2010
The Guardian
David Cameron has won his first European victory. At this week's EU summit in Brussels, he seemingly persuaded a dozen other European leaders to back his demand to limit to 2.9% next year's EU spending increase. Britain's eurosceptics wanted a freeze or a reduction.
How to fix the eurozone
27 September 2010
International Herald Tribune
A recent European Union meeting to review blueprints for better management of the euro got overshadowed by a noisy row over France’s decision to send scores of Roma – or gypsies – back to Bulgaria and Romania.
The strategic consequences of the euro crisis
01 September 2010
Europe's world
The euro crisis will be with us for many years. The underlying causes, such as southern Europe's lack of competitiveness, cannot be remedied overnight; Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain face years of low growth, severe curbs on public spending and perhaps social unrest.
The euro's success requires liberalisation
26 August 2010
The Wall Street Journal
Critics of the euro zone have long claimed that it suffers from structural flaws that threaten its long-term survival. The Greek sovereign-debt crisis has done much to vindicate these misgivings.