Treaty on Stability Coordination & Governance in the EMU - commentary links.

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This thread can serve to collate useful links and commentary on the Treaty on Stability Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union agreed on 30 January and to be signed on behalf of the countries involved on 1 March. Please add anything you think relevant. To start, below are links to the text, a Council statement, a commentary by the Irish Times Europe Correspondent Arthur Beesley, and a Question and Answer piece by the BBC.

The treaty text is here http://www.european-council.europa.e...087/treaty.pdf

The official EC Council statement is at European Council - The fiscal compact ready to be signed

Commentary links:

Treaty would bind us even after State regains its feet - The Irish Times - Wed, Feb 01, 2012

BBC News - Q&A: EU treaty to control eurozone budgets

Finally, a link to the Wikipedia EU Treaties page - Treaties of the European Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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EUROPE’S NEW fiscal treaty changes the landscape within the euro zone by introducing strict new limits on public debt and budget deficits.

They're not actually new, though.

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They're not actually new, though.

Lex makes that point here - Eurozone compact - FT.com

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Fiscal pact is 'indispensable bridge' - The Irish Times - Thu, Feb 02, 2012

Summary of economists' views given to Oireachtas on 2.02.12

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The Czech prime-minister has said today this needed to be a fiscal union pact and agrees with Mario Draghi, countries will cede some sovereignty.

The eurozone has no choice now: either it will melt down - something which nobody wants - or it will move towards a federal fiscal body.

Necas called the new pact on budgetary discipline, which all EU states save the Czech Republic and Great Britain intend to join, a "fundamental step in this direction".

States are renouncing their right to a free vote in the EU on important topics concerning the budget, and they are giving up a part of their sovereign.

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Colm McCarthy: If there is a vote, we'll simply have to say 'yes' - Analysis, Opinion - Independent.ie

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Colm McCarthy: If there is a vote, we'll simply have to say 'yes' - Analysis, Opinion - Independent.ie

Here are the relevant extracts... Do you agree with his points?

As I recall, Brian Lenihan said we need to balance the budget and then everything else will fall into place. This seems to be McCarthy's main point too. Whatever about the bigger issues with the banks and what has been pumped into them, we have to get back our income and expenditure aligned, to get out of this mess. This was what saved us in the late 80s...


Relevant extracts from the article
“The possibility of a referendum is already beginning to deflect attention from the main task in hand, the elimination of the budget deficit and the ultimate restoration of Exchequer solvency.
Moreover, a rejection of the treaty would antagonise the ECB, whose hostility towards this country has been amply demonstrated.
If there has to be a referendum, the electorate would be well-advised to swallow hard and vote yes, notwithstanding the inadequacies of the proposed treaty.
The tiresome chanting that 'austerity has failed' invites people to believe that a set of policy options is available that does not involve further expenditure cuts and further tax increases.
The budget-tightening has proceeded too slowly and the Fine Gael and Labour parties unwisely restricted their budgetary options through unnecessary pre-election promises.
There is no conceivable strategy which involves running large budget deficits indefinitely, and opposition politicians who pretend otherwise are throwing sand in the eyes of the electorate.”

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From Honor Mahony of euobserver on the new Court enforcement provisions:

Taking your friends to court « Behind the Scenes

TCD's Philip Lane - http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...311397651.html

The author links to his article on irisheconomy.ie where some of the comments on his piece are noteworthy.

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A simple article showing some of the more blatant weaknesses in the enforcement regime of the pact: Legal Loopholes: Critics Question Merkel's Fiscal Pact Proposal - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

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Worth reading, Davy's research report on the Governance treaty. They don't like it.

http://www.davy.ie/content/pubarticl...ct20120227.pdf