RESS RELEASE - Transnational Institute, March 1, 2012

The Irish govenment has been obliged to hold a referendum on the EU fiscal treaty due to be signed during the EU Summit in Brussels (March 1-2).

This significant development arose after the Irish Attorney General´s legal advice came out on 28 February that the treaty was incompatible with the Irish constitution.

"It is, as currently proposed, unconstitutional...the argument that Ireland has to bring its budget deficit down to 0.5 per cent of GDP as the treaty stipulates and that that can never be reversed or altered by any Irish Parliament runs counter to a 1987 Supreme Court judgment which said that Parliament, or any organ of the State, cannot give away powers granted to it by the Irish Constitution", according to Andy Storey of University College Dublin.

The EU fiscal treaty, initiated in November of last year, was deliberately drafted in an attempt to avoid a referendum in Ireland and other member states.

Lukas Oberndorfer, legal expert on EU laws from the University of Vienna, remarked that “By setting up the fiscal pact as a treaty under international law, located outside of European Law, it attempts to circumvent the legal procedures that would have guaranteed the participation and endorsement of the national parliaments as well as the European Parliament. ”

But even this legal manoeuvre could not prevent a referendum vote from Ireland. The Irish population will have a chance to resist what is being dubbed as an ´Austerity Treaty´, a blueprint for permanent austerity in the euro zone.

"A key element in the treaty is a tough limit on budget deficit, which will be mandatory in the future. Member states will lose influence over their fiscal policies since this has to be either in the constitution or in member states´ legislation, adopted in a way that cannot be changed. That will mean that for countries in crisis...this will inevitably lead to massive cuts to social expenditure”, explains Kenneth Haar, policy analyst at Corporate Europe Observatory.

For Ireland, adoption of the treaty without a referendum would have automatically meant "austerity stretching out into more or less the limitless future", added Andy Storey.

Susan George, President of the Board of Transnational Institute, calls for support for the Irish people who are “once more saddled with answering for all of us...I hope we can in our own countries have campaigns to support Ireland and show that we are not against Europe, we are for a different Europe...we are for a democratic, social and ecological Europe. ”

The referendum opens up an opportunity for peoples across the EU member states to support the campaign for a No Vote in Ireland and to launch a vigorous debate on EU citizens’ alternatives.

 More information and video interviews : The EU’s new austerity treaty