THE GOVERNMENT has voiced its opposition to a German push to fortify Europe’s economic rules by changing the Lisbon Treaty, arguing some of the measures Berlin wants can be achieved within the confines of current EU law.
Minister of State for Europe Dick Roche said that powers to withhold EU voting rights from governments that persistently break the union’s economic rules, as sought by Germany, would probably necessitate a referendum.
He argued, however, that an EU summit on Thursday night was very unlikely to go down that road. He also suggested the establishment of a permanent rescue mechanism for distressed euro countries could be achieved within the bounds of the current treaty.
Resistance to proposals from German chancellor Angela Merkel spilled into the open in Luxembourg yesterday as a succession of EU foreign ministers expressed doubt about their feasibility.
Although French president Nicolas Sarkozy moved last week to back Dr Merkel, only Estonia is willing to support the push for the suspension of voting rights. The Portuguese and Danish governments expressed their doubts yesterday, adding to opposition from Britain, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy.
Dr Merkel wants a permanent rescue net because she fears renewed market turmoil when the three-year ad hoc fund expires. She is also fearful of a constitutional challenge in Germany to the EU rescue package for Greece and the wider rescue mechanism for any other euro country.
The schism over the chancellor’s proposals is set to dominate an EU summit which starts in Brussels on Thursday night. After hearing from several ministers at a dinner on Sunday night, Mr Roche said an overwhelming majority of member states are opposed to the German argument in favour of a treaty revision.
“We believe as a Government that it’s not necessary to go in this area,” he said. No convincing case has been made in support of the suspension of democratic voting rights, he added.
Asked if measures to suspend voting rights could be adopted by Ireland without a referendum, he said they could not and believed Europe would not pursue that path in any event.
“Quite clearly if you’re going to go for a change that would remove a member state’s voting rights that would seem to me to require a referendum. It is very clear that the vast majority [do not support such a change] – in fact I think only one member state spoke in favour of that – so it’s very clear that that’s not where we’re going to go.”
No other minister believed such a change could be achieved within the existing treaty, he said.
“If you’re going to talk about suspension of voting rights then you’re going to talk about treaty change of a very significant order. It is a matter of fact that if you had treaty change of a significant order it would require a referendum.”
By contrast, Mr Roche said ministers were generally of the view that a permanent rescue fund could be established without “major” treaty change.
“I don’t see why it couldn’t be because basically we are already in a position where there are emergency procedures, where there are loans not bailouts being made available to Greece and to other member states as the need arises. And if that’s legal now I don’t see how it couldn’t be legal into the future,” he said.
“What you would need going into the future, you would need to institutionalise that [rescue fund] to make that into a policy that would be there running forward. That certainly could be done. There is no doubt in my mind that you could achieve that without the necessity for a major treaty change.”
The Government acknowledged German constitutional concerns, he said. “We’re willing to listen, we have to listen to what Germany has to say because the Germans have a constitutional position. They want people to respect the fact that they have a constitutional position. They are prepared to respect the fact that everybody else has a constitutional position.”
