EU ‘bullied’ Ireland into bailout, former Barroso aide says

EU Observer ^ | 08.05.14 @ 09:14 (May 8) | Benjamin Fox

[Olog-hai]

The EU’s institutions “bullied” Ireland into a bailout, a senior former adviser to the European Commission’s president said on Wednesday (7 May).

In an interview with Irish network RTE, Phillipe Legrain accused the Commission and the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank (ECB) of having sided with France and Germany in insisting that Irish taxpayers were left solely responsible for the €64 billion debt burden held by its banks, a move he described as “unjust and unbearable”. […]

“I think the bullying came from Germany because German banks were exposed a lot to Ireland, and from the European Commission which aligned itself close to Germany … and it came from Jean Claude Trichet, who sought to advance the interests of French banks,” he said, adding that “in effect, EU institutions were putting the interests of those banks ahead of those of Irish citizens”. …

[Irishguy]

we still have never been told WHO we owe this money to..

there is always a but

during the boom here people lost their freaking minds. they were buying houses for 400k euro (a 3 bed roomed semi detached). ultimately it was people buying and each house the government had a charge, a stamp duty (% of the house price, cant remember exactly but for 400k, about 30k would goto the government). they were borrowing by proxy and allowing the building 100 of thousands of homes per year. if the government were not involved in this, we would never have had this problem. it was artificial stimulation by government that encouraged the madness.

personally, i would have let the banks fail. they are in bed with government here and everyone who was lending to them knew that. i always ask this question for the bailout people: if the prices had continued to go up would you have given your profit to other taxpayers? no, well then why as a taxpayer who didnt go mad during the boom do we have to pay for your madness because you lost?

[Moltke]

if the prices had continued to go up would you have given your profit to other taxpayers? no, well then why as a taxpayer who didnt go mad during the boom do we have to pay for your madness because you lost?

Exactly. Same with Greece et al. The bankers wanted 20% interest on their loans, but when that turned sour they put the losses on the general public by way of bailouts. Bastards.

[Oratam]

Ireland “took the EU soup.” I have no sympathy for them.

[hinckley buzzard]

What ever possessed the Irish to join the EU in the first place. The "political economy" of the British Empire wasn't enough of a warning?

[Olog-hai]

Not voluntarily. The EU had to engineer the fall of the government to achieve that, since the prior leader was against it. The exact same thing also happened in Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain; Italy hasn’t had an elected prime minister in about six years.

[Olog-hai]

Eamon de Valera helped that along. He signed the Irish Constitution’s Third Amendment, which put European law supreme above Irish law. I guess we can call him history’s second Diarmaid Mac Murrough. (I remember all the “EEC No” and “No Common Market” graffiti in Dublin back in the early 70s too, and I was just a kid aged four.)

[Olog-hai]

That is what the Taoiseach before Enda Kenny wanted to do. The “bailout” loans were a power grab, facilitated by the country’s compliant Eurocrats.