German Commissioner's remarks are those of a myopic bully

14 September 2011

by Cllr Joe Costello

The remarks by the German EU Energy Commissioner, Gunter Oettinger, suggesting that Member States with excessive deficits should fly their flags at half mast, are insulting and display a fundamental misunderstanding of the complexities of the economic realities of the present financial EU crisis. The remarks are those of a myopic bully but worse still they reflect an arrogance which is inimical to the entire concept of European unity.

It is the attitude reflected in the remarks which has given rise to the EU failure to address the real causes of the economic crisis and imposes an unfair financial burden on Ireland's people.

The French and German banking systems broke all the lending rules in their pursuit of profit and now are determined to get their full pound of flesh from the countries into which they poured their surplus cash. They were professionally negligent but instead of sharing the blame and the burden, they are determined to make the borrowing countries the sole scapegoats. This is a recipe for disaster.

I will be raising the matter under Topical Questions in the Dáil and as Chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on EU affairs and I will introduce an emergency motion at our meeting tomorrow.