AusterityTreaty.com

Source: rebel-alliance.org

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CZr17HLH5U]

• John Corcoran (ICTA) writes in an email: At 8.25 am yesterday morning Paul Krugman and John Corcoran spoke simultaneously on BBC radio and advised the Irish people to vote No in the Fiscal Treaty Referendum.  John spoke on BBC radio ulster and Paul on BBC radio 4.  Both are distinguished former students of the London School of Economics.   Please join with John and Paul and ensure a No vote today.  If you click on the podcast link… you can hear the interview.
  John Corcoran, M.Sc. Economics London School of Economics and Political Science.
  Spokesperson, Irish Commercial Tenants Association;
• David McWilliams / Irish Independent - The fiscal treaty will only make things worse: The situation in the eurozone is not getting any better. The fiscal treaty, by imposing austerity on an already enfeebled economy, will make things worse, prompting more capital flight. Rolling the snowball down the hill is not an honest option.
  Mightn’t it be better to open the negotiations properly now?
• Forpras Financial Solutions - Why vote NO to the Fiscal Stability Treaty? Why are our Irish politicians telling us to vote YES? Are you aware that the ESM (European Stability Mechanism) isn’t even setup and yet Portugal, Spain and Greece need immediate bailing out? Where will all this funding come from? Well, more and more taxes will be needed to pay for all these bailouts and ofcourse the vicious circle of Ireland having to borrow to help bailout itself out and our partners. Every cent borrowed needs to be repaid with excessive interest rates. The government tells us not to worry as they have agreed with their collegues in the EU that we will be permitted to pay these loans over an extended timeframe. But nobody is agreeing to help reduce our debts or even write a portion off? Why? […] It looks like Ireland and the Irish public will be left with mountains of debt. More and more Irish will be required to pay higher taxes (VAT 23%, property tax, water charges, higher car taxes, higher fuel taxes and the list goes on) resulting in the standard of living in Ireland falling, rising debt and a massive increase in the number of Irish unable to pay off their debts whether they be mortgages, credit cards, etc.
• Vincent Browne / Politico.ie - We owe it to ourselves to oppose a trajectory that will vandalise society: I will vote No to express indignation with the cavalier disregard of the procedures and protocols of the European Union itself of the sovereignty of its member states, in the conduct of the leaders of the EU institutions and of Germany and France, in their insolence in interfering with the internal affairs of Greece and Italy, in their disregard for “democratic” procedures of the Union - even in the way this Fiscal Treaty came about.
  I will vote No to defy the wishes of the German elite, which benefited so spectacularly from the emergence of the Eurozone and now makes modest redistribution of that generated wealth, conditional on adherence to its economic and budgetary diktats, diktats that disadvantage not only the mass of people throughout the rest of Europe but the mass of people in Germany itself. 
  I will vote No to give backbone to the government’s dealings with the EU on the promissory notes and the other bank debt.  
• TEEU - the power union - TEEU Executive Committee Urges Members to Vote No to Austerity: The inevitable result would be a further contraction in the size of the economy – already decreased by over a quarter since 2008 – with an accompanying increase in unemployment and decrease in government revenue. As Nobel laureate Paul Krugman simply put it, austerity “pushes depressed economies deeper into depression”. We, and others, have pointed out that a fiscal stimulus is what is required and have suggested, to no avail, a means of applying it.

(Note: The following replaces & corrects earlier version of 7/May)

TWO TREATIES FOR THE EUROZONE AND AN AMENDMENT TO  ONE OF THE EU TREATIES  - ALL RELATED TO EACH  OTHER!

Reply to Dr Gavin Barrett, Senior Lecturer in European Law, UCD, who wrote an articleurging a Yes vote in the Fiscal Treaty referendum in the Irish Times on Friday 4 May, by Anthony Coughlan, Director, The National Platform EU Research and Information Centre, 24 Crawford Avenue, Dublin 9; Tel.: 01-8305792

Wednesday 9 May 2012

INTRODUCTION:

AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE 136,  TREATY ON THE FUNCTIONING OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (TFEU)  -

“The Member States whose currency is the euro may establish a stability mechanism to be activated if indispensable to safeguard the stability of the euro area as a whole. The granting of any required financial assistance under the mechanism will be made subject to strict conditionality.”

- Proposed amendment to Article 136 TFEU of the EU Treaties by which the 27 EU Member States  authorize the 17 Member States of the Eurozone to establish a  Stability Mechanism

The above Art.136 TFEU amendment to the EU Treaties has still to be approved by Ireland in accordance with its constitutional requirements under the “simplified” EU treaty amendment procedure of Article 48.6 TEU.

The European Council “Decision” to insert this amendment into the EU Treaties comes into force on 1 January 2013 if  by that time it has been approved by all 27 EU Member States in accordance with their constitutional requirements.

The ESM Institution which the 17 Eurozone States seek to establish and which Ireland would become a Member of is to be set up by the ESM Treaty for the 17 on the basis of this  Art.136 TFEU authorization  by the 27.  The ESM Treaty states that it is “complementary” to the Fiscal Treaty on which we have a referendum vote on 31 May.

The Government has promised the other 16 Eurozone Governments that it will have the ESM Treaty ratified by July,  but without the necessary constitutional referendum being held on it and on the Art. 136 TFEU amendment which authorizes it.

Q.  BUT WHERE WILL WE GET THE MONEY?

A.   We will get the money by holding a referendum on the Article 136 TFEU amendment and the ESM Treaty that it authorizes. This is constitutionally required in Ireland in order to validate these proposals as they stand, but our supine Government wants to avoid such  a referendum at all costs.  The 16 other Eurozone States will have to persuade us to vote Yes in such a referendum if they are to establish the kind of Stability Mechanism which the ESM Treaty envisages.  They can do this by agreeing to forgive the private bank debt the ECB has insisted should be imposed on Irish taxpayers, plus the Anglo-Irish promissory notes etc.   An Irish referendum on Article 136 TFEU and the ESM Treaty would also be an opportunity to add the voice of the Irish people to the calls across  Europe for the Eurozone authorities to agree a growth strategy instead of the present failed austerity policies.

Q.  WHERE WILL WE GET THE MONEY IF WE VOTE NO TO THE FISCAL TREATY?

A.   Where will the Government get the money to pay the €11 billion the ESM Treaty will require from us -  €1.3 billion up front and €250 million of that this July! -  with an open-ended treaty commitment to pay further sums thereafter without limit?

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Warning: Permanent Austerity Ahead!

The People’s Movement has opened an office in central Dublin for the duration of the referendum campaign on the Permanent Austerity Treaty. The office is at 5 Cavendish Row, directly opposite the Gate Theatre.

Get involved!

The result of this important referendum will have a major influence on this country and the welfare of its people.

So why not become involved? You don’t have to be a treaty expert to deliver leaflets or put up posters—just a willing worker, and there are many more tasks in a campaign. It is a relatively easy way to participate in a process whose result will profoundly shape your future.

There are now only three weeks to go to polling day, and every effort, no matter how small, to boost the No vote counts.

So why not give us a call or send a text to 087-2308330, or drop a line to post@people.ie.

Appeal

This is an urgent appeal for financial support to help us to wage a successful campaign against the Austerity Treaty. The treaty has been roundly rejected by such bodies as the European Trade Union Confederation and large swathes of opinion throughout Europe.

In Ireland we have a chance to decisively reject the treaty in a referendum. Our campaign is swinging into operation, but, as always, it is an uneven struggle with regard to resources. In the last Lisbon referendums the Yes side spent some €2.3 million, while the combined No side spent €1.2 million. In the second referendum the contrast was even greater: €10.206 million for the Yes side against €780,000 for the No side. All the indications are that vast resources will again be expended to engineer a Yes vote on 31 May.

We urgently need your help!

Opinion polls on voters’ attitudes show 30 per cent in favour, 23 per cent against, and 39 per cent still undecided.

Already non-partisan commentators have found the Yes campaign to be faltering, as four major trade unions decide to urge a No vote and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions declares that it will not be supporting the treaty.

Thomas Pringle TD, a patron of the People’s Movement, is challenging the constitutionality of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Treaty.

This treaty is closely linked to the Austerity Treaty, and he is asking the High Court to determine, among other matters, whether the Constitution of Ireland requires a referendum on that treaty also.

It will be a victory for democracy if he is successful; but it will also put a further enormous strain on our resources, as it will necessitate yet another referendum.

We earnestly ask you to respond favourably to this request.

Robert Ballagh print Mise Éire

With six weeks to go before Ireland votes on the European fiscal treaty there are signs the government’s campaign for a Yes vote is in danger of unravelling as public attitudes towards austerity harden and instability in Europe feeds into its referendum debate.

On Wednesday the Irish trade union movement said it could not support the treaty, which would tighten budget rules and introduce penalties for states that break the rules…

Opinion polls show a slim majority (30 per cent) in favour, with 23 per cent against. But with 39 per cent of the public undecided concern is rising in government circles that opinion could swing against the treaty during the campaign, as it did in 2008 when Ireland rejected the Lisbon treaty.

“The trade unions’ position shows the naysayers are growing. You can see from studying social media there is a higher degree of anti-European rhetoric for this referendum,” said David Farrell, professor of politics at University College Dublin.

He said the government faced a challenge in the referendum campaign because of a combination of a backlash against austerity, a lack of knowledge about the treaty and the threat that events in France and the Netherlands could feed into the campaign.

The South East Region of People’s Movement, which is a non party political organisation will be campaigning for a No vote in the referendum on 31st May next.

The grandly titled “Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union” is supposedly about “stability” in the Eurozone. Yet the treaty warns us that money from the new permanent European Stability Mechanism bailout fiund will only be given to States that have ratified it.  

The Economic and Monetary Union which Ireland signed up to under the 1992 Maastricht and 2009 Lisbon Treaties assumed that the 3% and 60% of GDP deficit rules for every Eurozone State would be abided by and enforced by means of the sanctions - warnings, special deposits, fines etc. - which are set out in those treaties.

If they had been and if the rules of the EU treaties had been enforced for all, there would have been no sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone and no need for any Eurozone bailout fund. When Germany and France broke the rules of the EMU by running big government deficits in 2003, the EU treaty sanctions to enforce the 3% and 60% deficit rules were not applied against them, and they were thereafter effectively dropped for everyone else.

Ireland did not break these excessive deficit rules, yet now is being threatened that unless it votes to permanently hands over virtually the whole area of budgetary policy to the Eurozone we will not be able to access funding from the European Stability Mechanism should we require it in 2013. We have a gun to our head or so the supporters of the treaty would want us to believe.

In fact Ireland would have a number of options in this event: -

• regardless of the Treaty vote, Ireland is guaranteed funding under the current programme as long as it meets its targets. A No vote will not change this;
• there is no legal basis for punishing a state that doesn’t ratify, and to try to do so would damage the very Euro that the pact is supposed to defend;
• if we adhere to the existing Treaties we cannot be excluded from their benefits. As Mr. Michael Noonan, Minister of Finance said after the last EU Summit, ‘There is a commitment that if countries continue to fulfil the conditions of their programme the European authorities will continue to supply them with money even when the programme is concluded … The commitment is now written in that if we are not back in the markets the European authorities will give us money until we get back in the markets.”;
• Ireland, if it should need a second bailout, could have access to funding sources such as the IMF, as well as our existing rights with Europe. This is the same insurance or back-stop that all EU countries are entitled to as members of the IMF. More EU countries have accessed IMF support than EU support in the last decade. These include Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Estonia.

Most economists regard a permanent balanced budget rule as absurdly inflexible. Governments need to run deficits on occasion to stimulate their economies and expand economic demand when that slumps heavily in their domestic or foreign markets.

In considering the possible implications of all this it is worth bearing in mind that in 2014, just two years time, under the Lisbon Treaty Germany’s vote in making EU laws will double from its present 8% of total Council votes to 16%, while France’s and Italy’s vote will go from their present 8% each to 12% each, and Ireland’s vote will halve to 1 %.This would be the context in which we had surrendered much of the stuff of national decision making and normal party politics from the arena of democratic consideration and debate.

For verification contact and further comment;

Kevin McCorry

086 3150301

For  information on People’s Movement check out:
http://www.irishreferendum.org
http://www.people.ie