EU nearing 'end game' in talks on treaty, says Taoiseach

THE EU is approaching the “end game” in discussions on a new treaty to deal with the fiscal crisis and the Taoiseach is “hopeful” a conclusion can be reached by leaders in Brussels next Monday.

Enda Kenny told the Dáil, “Ireland needs to see this new treaty adopted and enforced.” He said it was in the national interest to do so and to ensure every member state implements all commitments.

But Fianna Fáil deputy leader Éamon Ó Cuív warned the treaty would change little and said its failure “to include a single word about any reform of the ECB is the biggest symbol of its irrelevance to solving the crisis”.

He criticised the Taoiseach who would attend “yet another summit” without any effort to promote an agenda by undertaking serious bilateral meetings.

Introducing a debate on next week’s EU summit, Mr Kenny said that growth was key to job creation and Ireland, the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden, Finland and Estonia would make joint contributions to the summit, reflecting this view.

He repeated that it was “not helpful to speculate” on whether a referendum would be needed for Ireland to adopt the treaty.

The test would be whether the proposed treaty was compatible with the Constitution. “I can only say that the Attorney General will be asked for a formal view once a final text is available.”

But Mr Ó Cuív said a final text was already available and that the Taoiseach knew the Attorney General’s view of the text and “he should be honest enough to outline it before he signs off on it”.

Mr Kenny told TDs “discipline and co-ordination will be our touchstones in the future” and EU leaders were negotiating the treaty to make a credible contribution to stabilising the currency.

Mr Ó Cuív said that despite repetition by EU leaders of the word “jobs” in statements, “all they are discussing is fiscal consolidation and Franco-German obsessions with tax harmonisation”.

EU leaders had focused on addressing issues which would not solve the crisis, he added. Mr Ó Cuív said the treaty appeared “to do little more than put a small amount of extra enforcement behind policies which are already incorporated in EU regulations”.

If EU leaders wanted to address the causes of the crisis the first step was the need to change the mandate and policy of the ECB, he said.

Catherine Murphy (Ind, Kildare North) said the EU needed something like the post-second World War Marshall plan. She said the Taoiseach’s speech was at variance with the draft treaty “which is only about austerity. I don’t see anything in it that gives us any prospect for growth”.