Barroso

Euro crisis: “The commission is the economic government of Europe.”

| Readers 1

The BBC has a country-by-country guide to the EU austerity measures, including the bickering France and Germany.  And, as the Irish Times reports, EU Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, lays down the law Amid intensive debate among European governments around measures required to reinforce the euro’s foundations, Mr Barroso said some of the member states needed to be reminded that the commission was “the economic government of Europe”. France and Germany have been at loggerheads over the scale of the measures …

Read more…

Euro crisis: A Straight-Jacket to Impose Austerity on European Peoples

| Readers 12

Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Policy, recently held a joint press conference with President José Manuel Durão Barroso on Reinforced economic policy cooperation in Europe where he again flagged their desire to have more input into National budgets: The Lisbon Treaty provides plenty of room for progress through a better and full use of the existing economic policy instruments, and through revised and new secondary legislation, where needed. In particular, article 136 on economic policy coordination enables …

Read more…

EU Commission: “essential cornerstone of reinforced economic governance is to coordinate fiscal policy in advance”

| Readers 3

The EU Commission’s proposals for in-advance peer-review of proposed national budgets has provoked a heated political reaction in the Dáil.  As Miriam Lord wryly notes, the a vice-president of the European People’s Party, Fine Gael’s Enda Kenny is being accused of Euroscepticism. However Taoiseach Brian Cowen doesn’t seem as opposed to the proposals as, say, the Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt. In Germany, despite a difficult week, Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the proposals Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the EU’s attempts to crackdown on irresponsible spending, and said …

Read more…