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Thursday, May 24th 2012

Time to get new negotiators

Author: Donagh of Dublin Opinion

Published: February 1st, 2012

Section: Articles, Economy

Discussion: One comment ↓

Possibly Related: , , ,

I have an article on Politico.ie about the Fiscal Compact Treaty, and how all the economic decisions made by the Irish government are not dictated to them by our “EU masters” but follow the usual power template of Ireland’s “comprador class”.

*****

The final draft of the Fiscal compact is now available, meaning Irish pundits can no longer say “listen, we haven’t seen the final draft yet” when declaring that the requirements involved are really no different to what is in place in international agreements already. While the final treaty is regularly described as a list of German demands, there are two, broadly, that are considered to meet Germany’s needs explicitly: a debt brake and a writing of the treaty into the constitution of the countries that have signed up. Given the pressure that we are told Germany is able to exert within these negotiations it is interesting which demands the Irish Government has been able to resist and which they are happy to comply with. The Government has used its negotiating skills to successfully avoid the constitutional requirement.

Read it the whole thing on Politico.ie.

Discussion

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  1. Comment by: Frank Keoghan

    Feb 4th 2012 at 15:02

    It would be an affront to what is left of our national democracy and political independence if
    the government attempts to ratify the ‘Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in
    the Economic and Monetary Union’ without a referendum.
    The new treaty would put this state’s budgets under permanent and detailed euro-zone
    supervision. It would thereby impose a financial straitjacket on euro-zone members and
    condemn this country to decades of economic and social misery.
    It is also based on an economic absurdity. To have a permanent balanced budget provision in
    a country’s constitution or law is madness and the total opposite of what is required for this
    country at the moment, which are policies of growth and employment stimulus.
    Is this the ‘economic sovereignty’ that Mr Kenny keeps referring to as a key aspiration of
    official policy?
    It is almost as if the EU fanatics in this country have come to such a policy dead-end that they
    really no longer care what happens to the country, the euro or the EU as long the total
    bankruptcy of their position is not exposed.
    The same people will be seeking to make great play of the fact that struggling euro-zone
    countries will be allowed to apply for a bailout under the euro zone’s permanent bailout fund,
    the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), only if they have ratified the ‘fiscal pact’.
    They will of course not tell the full story, which is that the ESM would formally subordinate
    Ireland’s interests to those ‘of the stability of the euro area as a whole’ and that there would
    be no limits laid down as regards the ‘strict conditionality’ which can be imposed on
    recipients of financial bailouts from the fund and also even though Ireland will be required to
    contribute some €11 billion in paid up and callable capital and guarantees once this fund is
    set up later this year.
    The sugar coating for the pill will be promises of a federalisation or mutualisation of the euro
    debt.
    The fiscal compact threat, the ESM and the various other elements of the new euro-zone
    economic architecture all lead in one direction – permanent German hegemony of the EU
    plus an austerity economic regime for generations. An interest rate reduction and/or an extension of the debt repayment period down the line will
    not be the height of political achievement that undoubtedly will be claimed for it. It will
    certainly not be worth the price that we will have to pay

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