The Republic has to hold a constitutional referendum to ratify the fiscal treaty, which imposes budgetary rules on EU members limiting the amount of money they can borrow and the deficits they can run.
Addressing the Ireland Canada Business Association yesterday, John Bruton, a former Taoiseach and EU ambassador to the US, said the British government’s refusal to agree to amend existing European treaties to accommodate the new fiscal rules had “forced everybody else” to go outside existing agreements.
“The fact that a member state would do such a thing, to my mind, suggests something not far from malice,” he added.
Mr Bruton argued that if Britain had agreed to amend the existing EU treaties to accommodate the fiscal pact, it is possible the Republic could have avoided the need for a referendum. He suggested it would have been possible for the Government to rely on the fact the electorate have already ratified those existing treaties in previous referendums.
Mr Bruton is president of IFSC Ireland, a private organization that promotes the Republic, and particularly Dublin, as a location for international financial services. His brother, Richard, is Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation in the Coalition.
Mr Bruton was giving the Ireland Canada Business Association’s inaugural lecture, which was hosted by accountancy firm Price-Waterhouse-Coopers at its offices in Dublin. In his speech, he argued the welfare state, designed during a period of sustained growth in the 1950s and 1960s and promising generous pensions to workers, was the root cause of the EU’s sovereign debt crisis.
He said the markets recognized in many EU states the ratio of workers to pensioners was falling, making it harder to sustain retirement benefits. As a result, the markets were targeting the EU.
By: Barry O'Halloran
The Irish Times, 09/03/2012.
The above article just sickens me. We all know what the Brits are doing in the E.U., they want to protect their interests that lie with the Markets and the financial sector. But at least please call a spade a spade and stop the nonsense! They hate the euro and they want it gone. They advocate for the debt ridden nations to leave the euro-zone as soon as possible.
They tried to block the new EU fiscal treaty, because they will lose out in manipulating the European currencies and economy. And now that they managed to force Ireland to have a referendum on it with their objections and withdrawal, they will meddle again in the referendum and try to shoot down the treaty.
If the Irish vote NO they will be doing Britain's job and making them a favor, for the worsening of the crisis for all of the nations that are in dire need for a solution right now, including Ireland! But only Ireland's reputation will be damaged by this, not Britain's.
I understand that the British Government has invested a lot over the decades to maintain the financial sector and it is one of Britain's main economic sectors, since they got rid off a lot of their industries. But if Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Italy are called to face tough austerity and make the necessary reforms, with very painful consequences for their people, why Britain isn't?
Perhaps they should go back to what they had before and not rely on easy money from the Markets. It will be for Europe's, the British people's and the World's benefit to control the financial sector.
The U.K. is acting selfishly again, to protect the very institutions that brought us to this mess: the banks and the markets. Next time please stop lecturing us about how Europe is robbing Britain out of its resources, and consider that you (the ordinary British citizens) might also not escape the will of the Markets, after they have consumed everything in the other European countries.
We need to control the markets and the banks, not support them, side with them and give them more power over our citizens. But the City of London has different views!
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