The Taoiseach Enda Kenny is meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel amid claims by a British MEP that the eurozone crisis has produced a "German-dominated Europe".
The terms of Ireland's bailout deal is the key topic likely to dominate the talks, while the eurozone crisis is also likely to be discussed.
Meanwhile, a UK Independence Party leader, Nigel Farage, has said failure to tackle the eurozone crisis has produced a “German-dominated Europe”.
He claimed that the German Chancellor had taken charge because of the lack of leadership by a group of men – European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg Prime Minister who is chairman of the eurozone group of EU countries.
“Who is in charge?” Mr Farage demanded during a European Parliament debate on the crisis.
“None of you have any democratic legitimacy for the roles you hold.
“Into this vacuum steps Angela Merkel, and we are now living in a German-dominated Europe, something this European Union was supposed to stop.”
It was something, Mr Farage went on, which people had spilled blood trying to stop.
“I don’t want to live in a German-dominated Europe but you played a role,” he said, staring across the chamber at Mr Barroso and Mr Van Rompuy.
He said Europe’s leaders had had the Greek Prime Minister “removed and replaced by a puppet government”, and then “you decided that Silvio Berlusconi has to go and replaced him with Mario Monti, a former commissioner and fellow architect of this disaster, who is not even a member of parliament”.
Mr Farage continued: “It’s like being in an Agatha Christie novel and waiting to see who will be bumped off next – except that we all know who the villains are.”
In a right of reply to the debate, a furious Mr Juncker – stabbing the air with his finger – attacked those he said were using the debate to score points along political lines, and discussing the merits or otherwise of Mrs Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy – the Berlin-Paris duo making the running in the eurozone crisis.
Mr Juncker complained that he had only been given five minutes to respond to points raised by MEPs, some of whom, he said, had used the debate to address areas they wanted to address, and not the issue on the agenda of “economic governance”.
Mr Juncker said: “Is this a European parliament, or a parliament of domestic concerns? In which case you don’t want to see me here.”
He then sat down.
Mr Van Rompuy also said he had come to the parliament to talk about “economic governance” in the run-up to another EU summit next month.
He said: “I stuck to that, I told you what we have done and what we are going to do. My task is to find a European-wide consensus and that is the role I endeavour to discharge.”
He added: “I would like to thank some members (MEPs) who expressed their views on these issues which are on the agenda, relating to questions of economic governance.”
Earlier Mr Barroso had told MEPs that the Commission was working on “fiscal consolidation, on structural reforms, on strengthening economic governance and on boosting growth” across Europe to restore confidence in the economy.
He said that with economic recovery at a standstill, stagnant investment and consumption, and unemployment set to remain at around 10% for the next two years, the task was more important than ever.
“That is why the Commission is advancing its work and taking its responsibilities with the utmost seriousness,” he said.
Mr Barroso went on: “The hardest lesson is this: when things go badly wrong, the impact is felt by every European taxpayer and by far too many European workers whose prosperity and livelihoods are put at risk, not by their government sometimes but by someone else’s government.”
He said the response had to be to rebuild Europe’s structures and revise its rules.
“A key way to ensure this is that the community method (EU decision making via the Commission and MEPs) remains at the heart of our response to the crisis, and they must be at the core of how we shape the European Union to make it stronger and fitter for the future,” he said.
He said in future, states will need to go even further on strengthening integration and this will require Treaty changes.
“Any revision of the Treaty should be for deeper integration of the Euro area but also for a stronger European Union, in full respect of the community method,” he said.
Mr Barroso attacked suggestions of a eurozone inner core, with a separate treaty and rules from the outer circle of member states:
“We will not make the euro stronger through fragmentation of the EU,” he warned, insisting: “Reinforcing the governance of the euro is also reinforcing our Union. There should not be any divide between the current 17 member states on one side and 10 on the other, most of them, almost all of them, have as a vocation to join the euro.”
Mr Barroso said: “This Parliament and the Commission, have never left a doubt about their determination to take this crisis head-on and to work for stronger European Union and I know that I can count on you and you certainly can count on the Commission to continue precisely doing that.”
The terms of Ireland's bailout deal is the key topic likely to dominate the talks, while the eurozone crisis is also likely to be discussed.
Meanwhile, a UK Independence Party leader, Nigel Farage, has said failure to tackle the eurozone crisis has produced a “German-dominated Europe”.
He claimed that the German Chancellor had taken charge because of the lack of leadership by a group of men – European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg Prime Minister who is chairman of the eurozone group of EU countries.
“Who is in charge?” Mr Farage demanded during a European Parliament debate on the crisis.
“None of you have any democratic legitimacy for the roles you hold.
“Into this vacuum steps Angela Merkel, and we are now living in a German-dominated Europe, something this European Union was supposed to stop.”
It was something, Mr Farage went on, which people had spilled blood trying to stop.
“I don’t want to live in a German-dominated Europe but you played a role,” he said, staring across the chamber at Mr Barroso and Mr Van Rompuy.
He said Europe’s leaders had had the Greek Prime Minister “removed and replaced by a puppet government”, and then “you decided that Silvio Berlusconi has to go and replaced him with Mario Monti, a former commissioner and fellow architect of this disaster, who is not even a member of parliament”.
Mr Farage continued: “It’s like being in an Agatha Christie novel and waiting to see who will be bumped off next – except that we all know who the villains are.”
In a right of reply to the debate, a furious Mr Juncker – stabbing the air with his finger – attacked those he said were using the debate to score points along political lines, and discussing the merits or otherwise of Mrs Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy – the Berlin-Paris duo making the running in the eurozone crisis.
Mr Juncker complained that he had only been given five minutes to respond to points raised by MEPs, some of whom, he said, had used the debate to address areas they wanted to address, and not the issue on the agenda of “economic governance”.
Mr Juncker said: “Is this a European parliament, or a parliament of domestic concerns? In which case you don’t want to see me here.”
He then sat down.
Mr Van Rompuy also said he had come to the parliament to talk about “economic governance” in the run-up to another EU summit next month.
He said: “I stuck to that, I told you what we have done and what we are going to do. My task is to find a European-wide consensus and that is the role I endeavour to discharge.”
He added: “I would like to thank some members (MEPs) who expressed their views on these issues which are on the agenda, relating to questions of economic governance.”
Earlier Mr Barroso had told MEPs that the Commission was working on “fiscal consolidation, on structural reforms, on strengthening economic governance and on boosting growth” across Europe to restore confidence in the economy.
He said that with economic recovery at a standstill, stagnant investment and consumption, and unemployment set to remain at around 10% for the next two years, the task was more important than ever.
“That is why the Commission is advancing its work and taking its responsibilities with the utmost seriousness,” he said.
Mr Barroso went on: “The hardest lesson is this: when things go badly wrong, the impact is felt by every European taxpayer and by far too many European workers whose prosperity and livelihoods are put at risk, not by their government sometimes but by someone else’s government.”
He said the response had to be to rebuild Europe’s structures and revise its rules.
“A key way to ensure this is that the community method (EU decision making via the Commission and MEPs) remains at the heart of our response to the crisis, and they must be at the core of how we shape the European Union to make it stronger and fitter for the future,” he said.
He said in future, states will need to go even further on strengthening integration and this will require Treaty changes.
“Any revision of the Treaty should be for deeper integration of the Euro area but also for a stronger European Union, in full respect of the community method,” he said.
Mr Barroso attacked suggestions of a eurozone inner core, with a separate treaty and rules from the outer circle of member states:
“We will not make the euro stronger through fragmentation of the EU,” he warned, insisting: “Reinforcing the governance of the euro is also reinforcing our Union. There should not be any divide between the current 17 member states on one side and 10 on the other, most of them, almost all of them, have as a vocation to join the euro.”
Mr Barroso said: “This Parliament and the Commission, have never left a doubt about their determination to take this crisis head-on and to work for stronger European Union and I know that I can count on you and you certainly can count on the Commission to continue precisely doing that.”
Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/british-mep-claims-europe-is-being-dominated-by-germany-528550.html#ixzz1dstFiYR5
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