ECB POWERS:THERE MAY be just weeks left to save the euro, according to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin.
Mr Martin called on the Government yesterday to make a very clear statement on its position in relation to the euro crisis.
Changing EU treaties, as was being demanded by German chancellor Angela Merkel, was not going to change the matter, he said, since treaty change would take anything from a year to three years.
Mr Martin said the Government had until now “sat on the sidelines” at European summits and had not circulated any proposals in relation to bondholders, or broadening the mandate of the European Central Bank.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Irelandprogramme, Mr Martin said Wednesday's meeting between Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Dr Merkel had been the first substantive bilateral meeting he had had with any leader of a euro zone country.
The Fianna Fáil leader said he had consistently raised the issue in the Dáil and asked the Taoiseach to set out the Government’s position in relation to the euro zone crisis, and in relation to proposals emanating from Dr Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy on treaty change.
He said he had also asked Mr Kenny to convene a meeting of party leaders with a view to consensus in the Dáil in relation to the crisis so that the Taoiseach would have a broader Oireachtas mandate in future negotiations.
Two weeks ago the Taoiseach had hailed the last EU summit as “a major success” and had expressed confidence that it would provide a pathway out of the crisis, Mr Martin said.
“We now know, of course that that confidence was misplaced and the last summit and the recommendations or proposals that emanated from it unravelled very quickly,” he added.
Mr Martin said he believed there were only “weeks” left to save the euro. There was not time to see treaty change as the route to resolution of the current “very severe and serious” crisis affecting the euro zone.
He said the German position had been “a fundamental problem” and that Germany and France had been allowed to take “centre stage” in recent months.
This was a situation which was “injurious” to the future of the European Union, he said.
Mr Martin said that his party had put forward proposals suggesting that the mandate of the ECB be changed.
“We should try to do what we can in the coming weeks to utilise the existing treaties to maximise the capacity of the ECB as a lender of last resort to deal with the crisis,” he said.