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Irish perspectives on European governance

Category Archives: Fiscal Treaty

Some political consequences of the referendum

by Agustin Ruiz Robledo, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Granada (Spain) and Visiting Scholar at the UCD School of Law 2011-12 The pace of politics and life in the twenty-first century is so fast that the referendum of May 31 seems to have been held a year ago and is no longer an issue worth talking about. However, much the same happens in cycling races, the fact of winning a stage does not mean that there are no consequences for the overall result, quite the contrary. Therefore, Read more [...]

The morning after

Regardless of one's views on the fiscal treaty, this post-referendum analysis by my UCD colleague Andy Storey is a sobering reminder that a treaty focused on government debt is unlikely to resolve a crisis sparked principally by irresponsible lending and borrowing by private banks. On the other hand, bond markets (and German taxpayers & parliamentarians) are now hyper-sensitive to government debt across Europe, so regardless of the sources of the current crisis, it is unrealistic to expect that Read more [...]

Fear, Anger and Resignation: It’s Nearly Referendum Day

Before the conventional wisdom sets in stone, a few thoughts on the referendum campaign. First, win or lose, this looks to have been a good campaign for the left of the ‘no’ side. The profile of key Sinn Fein and ULA spokespeople will have been raised significantly as will their political credibility in key sectors of the electorate. The right of the ‘no’ side has been less successful. The prevarication of key actors (Ganley and Ross for example) and their late entry to the campaign didn’t Read more [...]

The fiscal treaty and the EU’s social bargain

Patrick Kinsella argues in today's Irish Times that opposing the fiscal treaty is not equivalent to opposing the EU. In fact, his critique of the treaty is based on the argument that its narrow focus on budget discipline contradicts the de facto bargain between capital and labour that has guided European integration since the 1950s, with steps toward freer trade consistently offset by greater protections for social rights. This is a very compelling argument. What Kinsella does not explain, however, Read more [...]

Treaty threatens to widen democratic deficit in EU

In this opinion piece for the Irish Times, I argue that the Fiscal Treaty will exacerbate the existing democratic deficit which characterises European Union politics. The EU already has a significant problem with its 'image' in many member states and Eurobarometer polls demonstrate that support for the integration process has fallen as the economic crisis has deepended. Should some of the measures stipulated within the fiscal treaty be imposed by the EU there is a real danger of transforming national Read more [...]

Fiscal treaty referendum is still wide open

The latest poll results, reported in today's Irish Times, show that the outcome of the May 31 referendum is still wide open: many voters are still undecided and given the degree of anti-austerity anger in the country, this could easily upset the 60:40 split in favour of the treaty among those who have decided how they will vote. Meanwhile, the government's effort to build support for the treaty are complicated by rampant uncertainty about Greece's future, which both Yes and No camps are claiming Read more [...]

Institute for International Integration, Trinity College

IIS PUBLIC SYMPOSIUM this evening: Title: "Whither Ireland and the Fiscal Treaty?" Dr. Gavin Barrett, School of Law, UCD & Prof. Terrence McDonough, J.E.Cairnes School of Business & Economics, NUIG & Trinity's Head of School of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Prof. James Wickham Venue: Thomas Davis Theatre, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin Access to the event is free but the Institute would kindly ask you to please register your participation: see further http://www.tcd.ie/iiis/ Read more [...]

The Greek ‘Bailout’

As Greek politicians in the midst of post-election turmoil are told that they must implement the ‘bailout’ programme agreed with the EU and IMF it may be timely to reflect on that programme.  Added topicality arises from the fact that Charles Dallara is speaking at the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) in Dublin tomorrow (16th May).  Dallara is Managing Director of the Institute of International Finance (IIF) and is talking about ‘Lessons from the Greek Debt Exchange’, Read more [...]

I Give Up: A Very Reluctant and Bitter ‘Yes’

To my mind, there is only one reason to vote for the "Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union" and that is cold, hard cash. What the treaty does is of dubious economic value while how it does it appears to be redundant.  At best, one might make an argument that it offers a ‘belt and braces’ approach to fiscal discipline, but this is a discipline that threatens to deepen rather than alleviate steep falls in domestic demand. It is also a discipline Read more [...]