4 February 2001

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EU budget bullying shows need for Treaty of Nice `No' vote

The attempt by the EU Commission to bully the Irish Government into changing its budget and cutting public spending shows the need for a NO vote in the planned referendum on the Treaty of Nice, according to Sinn Fein Cavan/Monaghan TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin. Deputy Ó Caoláin said:

``The EU Commission is trying to bully the Irish Government into cutting public spending. The Irish Government is right to resist this and must continue to do so.

``Successive governments have ceded more and more powers to the EU and surrendered control over our own economy. By joining the Euro and  abandoning democratic control of fiscal policy this government paved the way for the EU Commission and other EU finance ministers to determine Irish budgetary policies.  We are now seeing the results of that surrender of economic sovereignty.

``Under the Treaty of Nice this process is being speeded up. That is why the Treaty should be rejected in the planned referendum. Nice is another major step in the creation of a federal EU state with its own currency, its own army and its own central - but undemocratic - government.''

ENDS

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