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Originally Posted by anewbeginning  I fixed it now.
They don't negotiate those dictates. Ireland's influence in Europe has about the same impact on the direction of Europe as a flea has on the direction a horse takes. Get Real! |
The Treaties have to jump the hurdle of the Irish electorate, which means that our influence on the treaties tends to be quite large.
As to the day to day running, we've always had a disproportionate influence - and if you're referring to our QMV weighting, would people please, ffs, read up on how the Council
actually works? Virtually nothing is
voted on - stuff is carried forward only if
everyone agrees.
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Originally Posted by anewbeginning The larger countries, the French, Italians, etc are well used to ignoring EU dictates. In Ireland we accept them all. |
Other way round. We have an appalling track record on things like environmental directives, and plenty of others pass into that strange limbo of laws that nobody really pays attention to. The UK, on the other hand, tends to rigidly follow what has been agreed.
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Originally Posted by anewbeginning I suppose you still think bringing low cost competitors like Poland into the EU was a good idea. Ask the former workers in Dell what they think of that. |
So you reckon we should have tried to hold our own as the EU's low-cost outsourcing destination? You appreciate that would have involved keeping Irish pay rates low for the benefit of foreign corporations?
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One of the reasons we cannot get out of our present recession in Ireland is we have no control over any of the main economic levers. They are all controlled a thousand miles or more away.
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We won't come out of this recession until Europe comes out of this recession - whereas if we had full control over the levers we'd have to wait until Europe comes out of this recession. Personally, I'm at least a little glad
FF at least don't have the power to screw the economy up further with bad macro-economic 'counter-recession' policies.