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Irish perspectives on European governance

Category Archives: Ireland in Europe

Defense and the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU

As the Irish European Council presidency draws to a close, all eyes are on the big ticket items the Irish Government pledged to address: substantive progress on economic governance and banking union; jobs, growth and the single market; the MAFF; EU-US free trade; fisheries and agriculture reform and a host of others. Somewhat overlooked has been the issue of security and defence. The Irish presidency has worked tremendously hard to contribute to a positive momentum in the run-up to the dedicated Read more [...]

Austerity in the Eurozone periphery

The latest issue of the online journal Intereconomics features articles about Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Aidan Regan and I wrote the article on Ireland. As we know well here in Ireland, they're an oddly-sorted bunch, because each faces a rather different set of domestic policy challenges. Each also has problems that need to be addressed in a wider European context, and they're not always the same problems. Read more [...]

Home truths about the Euro crisis

Jean-Claude Juncker said some remarkably candid things to the European parliament yesterday. His role as the chair of the Eurozone group of countries has given him limited scope to speak freely to date. Indeed he’s someone who is quoted as saying 'I’m for secret, dark debates'. Now that he’s about to step down, he’s made some extremely critical comments about the entire approach the EU has adopted in response to the crisis. I have some reflections on this, and especially on high and rising Read more [...]

Merkel Hysteria

If a case study was needed on how NOT to conduct EU negotiations, the October EU summit provides it. It has long been the bane of EU politics that the carefully crafted, finely balanced and nuanced written conclusions of an EU summit can be blown out of the water by a President or Prime Minister speaking at their subsequent ‘national’ press conference. Here they are defending themselves, making the best of a bad lot and/or talking up their achievements in front of what they often see as a domestic Read more [...]

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 [...]

Europe’s North Col: A New European Union Treaty?

Whatever medium or longer terms plans Chancellor Merkel has for the European Union, we are undoubtedly embarked on yet another treaty-reform journey. The immediate eurozone emergency may or may not require treaty change (one can only imagine that the Council legal services are engaged in a desperate battle to avoid that) but the dye has been cast on yet another round of treaty negotiation. With President Van Rompuy offering some ‘building blocks’ on this at the forthcoming June European Council Read more [...]

Fear vs. Anger?

What Ireland and Europe need now is a real debate between alternative visions of economic recovery and sustainable growth that are positive, realistic and clear with regard to what needs to be done at national and European levels. Instead, the Irish debate on the Fiscal Treaty is consistently framed (see two MEPS in this clip) as a choice between fear (vote yes) and anger (vote no). The 'yes' camp fails to situate the treaty within a plausible and positive strategy for recovery and thus contributes Read more [...]