Sir, – The Cyprus bank deal raises questions of the bona fides of the EU institutions, in particular, the Council of Ministers, ECB and the Commission.
Article 26.2 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU protects the free movement of capital across the internal market. The restrictions placed upon the Cypriot people and their banks deny the Cypriots protection under this article and impair one of the most basic of human rights, the right to property.
This arrangement represented an unusual disregard for even a mirage of democracy in that it was not even disguised as a sovereign decision of the Cypriots, but was axiomatically a decision of the EU institutions.
Democracy and justice are seriously undermined by unelected technocrats imposing unconscionable terms upon vulnerable nations who are negotiating from a position of duress. This is compounded when the result of these arrangements is to assault the Treaty articles and human rights. – Yours, etc,
JAMES KANE,
Hardebeck Avenue,
Walkinstown, Dublin 12.