Editor’s Note: Just as we predicted in our piece Powerful EU Countries May Reform “Mission Impossible” Treaty in Secret, the EU is going to ram through amendments without a vote. Can the blatant destruction of national sovereignty be anymore obvious?
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| Herman Von Rompuy: Reuters Image |
Arthur Beesley
Irish Times
EU LEADERS are poised this week to agree an amendment to the Lisbon Treaty to create a permanent rescue fund for euro countries, a step they believe they can take without prompting another Irish referendum.
At a summit here on Thursday and Friday, the leaders of the 27 member states will agree to insert a paragraph into the treaty to empower euro zone countries to bail out any distressed member of the single currency.
The move comes amid disunity over the necessity for any new measures to boost confidence in the euro after Ireland’s rescue failed to calm financial markets.
With Portugal and Spain under pressure, German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy are resisting demands to enlarge the €750 billion temporary bailout scheme.
Agreement has been reached, however, on the parameters of a looming change to the treaty, which was enacted only on December 1st last year.
Draft “conclusions” for the summit, seen by The Irish Times , say the permanent mechanism to be established by member states will be created by way of an inter-governmental arrangement.
As such, the mechanism will operate outside the ambit of the European institutions, leaving the leaders free to deploy a “simplified” treaty revision procedure reserved for changes which do not increase the competences of the European Union.
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