The Irish are outrage at the German budget leak

The Irish are outrage at the German budget leak

Irish political leaders expressed outrage on Friday that confidential details of Ireland’s next budget were given to the German Bundestag before the Irish parliament, the latest controversy sparked by growing wariness of Berlin’s dominance of Europe’s response to the spiralling debt crisis, but it’s always been the Germen way that’s why we had two WW with them, and now we have the start of WWIII but now with the Euro and not tanks well no yet? Ireland only has its self to blame by becoming part of the EU euro Ireland didn’t do their maths either now they’re in a right old mess like the rest of the EU that has the euro.

The Irish blueprint, which included a 2 percentage point increase in the country’s 21 per cent value added tax, had been given to the German finance ministry as part of a quarterly review of Dublin’s €85bn bail-out by international lenders. By German law, the Bundestag’s budget committee must review such documents to clear the country’s release of quarterly aid tranches.

Michael Noonan, Irish finance minister, called the leak of the document by the Bundestag “disappointing”, and Michael Martin, leader of the opposition Fianna Fáil party, described it as “incredible”. The Irish budget is not due to be announced in Dublin until December 6.

“This is another example of how the sovereignty of this state has been handed over,” said Gerry Adams, head of Sinn Féin, we would have to agree with Mr Adams at that statement and is a first in English history, he is quite right, it’s only a pity the rest of the Irish people can’t see it.

The anger in Ireland follows rising voices from around the Europe Union expressing resentment towards Germany’s continued hard-line stance on austerity and resistance to more aggressive action to help struggling Eurozone economies.

Volker Kauder, a leading member of German chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling CDU party, added fuel to the fire this week when he claimed at the CDU party conference that, “Europe is now speaking German”.

Resentment is particularly acute in Europe’s periphery. Spanish government and central bank officials have privately expressed outrage at Germany’s resistance to assistance, particularly after Madrid spent months implementing fiscal consolidation measures demanded by Berlin.

The resentment boiled over this week when José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spanish prime minister, publicly complained about the lack of more European Central Bank intervention in his country’s plummeting bond market – an implicit criticism of Berlin, which has firmly resisted such measures.

Similar criticisms have come from French ministers in recent days. And Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister who chairs the group of Eurozone finance ministers, lobbed a volley of his own this week when told a German newspaper that Berlin’s sovereign debt was just as high as Spain’s but that the German government was wilfully ignoring it.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch which represents Eurozone creditors as part of the “troika” of international lenders to Ireland, acknowledged Friday it had turned over the Irish budget documents to the German finance ministry.

But Amadeu Altafaj-Tardio, the Commission’s economic spokesman, insisted it was legally required to do so, since Berlin and other Eurozone lenders must sign off on quarterly aid tranches to Dublin.

“We have a legal obligation to provide the relevant information so member states are in a position to decide to provide the money,” Mr Altafaj said. “We understand that the Irish authorities are upset. Any leak of confidential information is regrettable.”

Mr Altafaj added, however, that the Commission would not pursue any sanctions against Berlin despite a formal complaint by Dublin.

All countries governments that put themselves in the euro didn’t do the maths nor take note at Germanys hidden agenda, they conquer you once with tanks now they will with the euro.