Pictured above – French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Taoiseach Enda Kenny
On Tuesday 28th February, Taoiseach Enda Kenny made the somewhat surprising announcement that the government (acting on the advice of the attorney general) will put the revised European Union Fiscal Compact Treaty which aims to tighten budgetary controls on EU members states to a referendum. The compact, agreed at an EU summit last month, proposes tough new budgetary disciplines on each eurozone state, including near-zero budget deficits. Twenty-five of the European Union’s twenty-seven countries have signed up for the treaty, with only the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic opposed. In a time when support for the European Union has cooled in Ireland following the financial crisis, the Fiscal Treaty has already ignited a firestorm of political debate across Ireland and is bound to become an increasingly divisive issue over the coming months as groups on both sides of the argument continue to jokey for positions.
Having read the treaty and watched developments in Europe over the past number of years, I am firmly of the opinion that this treaty is effectively a political rather than an economic document and one which offers very few concrete solutions to Ireland’s current economic woes. From my perspective the treaty represents one large steps towards a fully federalized Europe, whereby the democratic right of national parliaments to decide their budgets shifting to the unelected European Commission and European Court of Justice. step by step significant powers are being given to the Commission which weaken national governments. EU officials will be able to demand spending cuts, with the threat of fines. By restricting a country from running a structural budget deficit of no more than 0.5% of GDP, the treaty essentially outlaws all forms of expansionary fiscal policy and will institutionalize austerity in Ireland and across Europe. Given the permanent implications of the treaty, a “YES” vote would represent a fundamental and irreversible transfer of power away from elected governments. It is anticipated that in order to save the single currency full fiscal union and eventual political union will follow. Such changes would be huge and in my opinion against the wishes of most ordinary European citizens.
IrishPolitik 