Supporters of the Irish Yes campaign (photo: Ireland For Europe)

The rocky road to Lisbon

October 2, Ireland will decide on the Lisbon Treaty for a second time. While many predict that it will come back into the European fold as a means to emerge from deep economic recession, new polls suggest that the No vote is resurgent, reports the Financial Times.

Published on 7 September 2009 at 13:05
Supporters of the Irish Yes campaign (photo: Ireland For Europe)

"Plans for a new president of the European Council, an overhaul of EU foreign policymaking, and an extension of majority voting amongst the 27 member states abolishing national vetoes on such sensitive subjects as asylum and immigration, energy and sport, hang on how the Irish vote in a second referendum," writes Quentin Peel in the Financial Times. Read full article...

ECONOMIC CRISIS

The NAMA no-no

The controversy over Nama (National Asset Management agency) has all but overshadowed the debate on the Lisbon Treaty. Nama, a “bad bank” initiated by Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s unpopular Fianna Fail government, proposes to buy up toxic assets contracted during Ireland property bubble, which burst in late 2007, making Ireland one of the EU’s most crisis ridden members states. The estimated value of loans the Irish state must buy up is 90 billions euros, which would make it one of the largest property owners on the planet. An Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll published this weekend reveals that only 26% per cent of those surveyed favoured it, with 40% against and 34% of no opinion. Writing in the Irish Times, Professor Brian Lucey of Trinity College Dublin, argues that “while people may not understand all the technicalities, they do see the core immorality and unfairness at the heart of Nama.” Nama, he notes is “a conscious decision to use taxpayers’ money to overpay banks for their toxic assets, thereby transferring billions of euro from the taxpayers to bank shareholders.” In order to finance the buyback, the state will be obliged to issues bond on international markets. “This ignores the difficulties any new issue of debt is likely to face in the next few years.” Lucey accuses the “mandarins of Merrion Street” as being “out of touch with reality.”

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