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EUROPEAN MARKETS HAVE opened down this morning as proposals for greater Eurozone governance by the French and German leaders yesterday failed to calm worries over the debt crisis.
Shares are down across Europe this morning. In London, at the time of writing, the FTSE 100 is down 1.10 per cent, in Frankfurt the Dax is down over 1.5 per cent and in Paris the CAC 40 is down by over half a per cent.
The ISEQ index of Ireland’s leading share prices is also down over 0.5 per cent.
It follows proposals by the French president Nicolas Sarkozy and the German chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday to introduce a joint corporate tax rate for their two countries amongst a raft of other measures discussed during a bilateral summit.
The duo also made calls for the 17 Eurozone countries to adopt constitutional limits on deficits to ensure their is no repeat of the economic crises that have hit the likes of Ireland, Greece and Portugal.
The Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has welcomed such proposals.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland this morning, Noonan said that “what is being proposed isn’t revolutionary but it is evolutionary.”
He said that much of what was being proposed by the leaders of the Eurozone’s two biggest economies was being “retrofitted” following on from the introduction of the European Financial Stability Fund.
He added: “In practical terms it won’t mean a lot for Ireland, we’re under tight fiscal control already,” and continued to play down the significance of yesterday’s porposals.
Noonan added that constitutionally limiting budget deficits would require a referendum but rejected the idea that it was conceding sovereignty to Europe.
He said: “There’s merit in the argument that the people should have in the constitution a protection against future reckless governments.”
On the proposal by France and Germany to harmonize their corporation tax rates by 2016, Noonan added that this would have no impact on Ireland’s own low rate of 12.5 per cent whatesoever.
“That’s their business,” he added.
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Is it just me or does anyone else believe that Noonan is not up to speed on the Franco-German proposal but in fact sounds like someone who is bluffing his way through this.
I don’t believe him and now I don’t trust him.
I am worried he does not sound like a man who knows what’s going on.
It’s time we made plan 2 and started preparing our way for exiting the euro area. I just feel we can’t trust the Germans and French and as a citizen don’t believe it’s in irelands interest anymore to play this game.
Let’s quit the euro and take back control of our economy.
And then what ?.. back great Irish leaders like Bertie & Cowen, booms that can only get boomier, or academic head in clouds thinking of Fitzgerald or scheming of CJ are Dev style isolation of “the emergency”, all run by a department of finance that doesn’t have a economist working in it ? the Irish punt & interest rates of 14%, devaluations & inflation, 23% unemployment, Galway tent politics, golden circles & dancing at the cross roads, & blaming the Brits for it all, & praying at a all powerful & corrupt church for God to send big Americans with some money to give us a dig out… time to grow up people are face a future a a damp cold poorer greener version of Cuba stuck in the North Atlantic with people as its biggest export.
Yea things where brilliant when we ran our economy…
Not that I don’t agree with the above, I do. It should be pointed out that no one really knows what the Franco/German position really is. There is only a vague outline, that is being presented, as always by the big 2 as a fait accompli. So no one really has an idea what this means but we can all be certain that it is not being done for our benefit, or for the benefit of a very large swathe of Europe.
Jeff – Way to go with the quitter attitude, it will get you far in life. Well done, although many might say that it is time that you stood on your own two feet instead of praying that a bigger state picks you up.
@jeff you seem to have been misinformed, we ran a surplus up until the crises, the only reason we are in the red is the bank bailouts. Believe me I am the first person to call this government and the one before utterly incompetent, i have not nor never will vote FG/FF/Lab/SF as they have convinced me have no idea what is beneficial for the people. But our finances were previously maintained within our budget, so really we have no need for this ECB Fiscal nonsense. Thinking the ECB who flooded many countries with cheap money not expecting a crash is foolish.
Tony lets be clear, a quitter attitude would be to leave the Euro, because be don’t like the rules are want to take the opportunity that it opens to us. I for one am thankful for the stability the Euro has brought & fume with angry a Bertie & Biffo etc for blowing it (Why r Biffo/Seanie etc not in jail????….. oh yes Irish laws / system again), but then we did vote for them?. But without stability to plan this country is going no place. I want us to stay at the heart of the EUR & EU, romantic notions of nationalism don’t work or pay the bills in a globalized world.
G we only had a surplus because uncontrolled bank borrowing which we are stuck with was “invested” in building which produced unsustainable Taxes/jobs which was then spend without and planning or though for the future competitiveness of the economy.
Uncontrolled Bank borrowing = “investment” in property = taxes/jobs = Budget surplus = spending, that equation isn’t coming back under any conditions again.
I dont trust him either. Yes I think like you theres a lot of bluffing from him said in a very very quiet authorative way which is done to get us to believe him. After all he is a politician ! And I certainly dont trust the French or the Germans. The whole Euro debacle is turning into a monster out of control.
I agree 100%. FG lied through their teeth to get into power & didn’t come true with any of their electoral promises, they lied then & will lie now. They let us down 100% & like FF they are sewing their own demise by not listening to the electora. I did not vote FG as they are tied to the hip with FF, I have never seen one party overthrow a decision the other party made, instead using it as an excuse to get into power only. We need to rid of current party never mind the euro or Europe, unless the right party is in power nothing will change as it hasn’t since the election. We need to start printing a new currency in preparation to a likely collapse of the euro & remember you people who voiced concern years ago that Ireland was conceding it’s sovereignty to Europe, our laws, decisions, neutrality etc.. Well look at us today, not only have we lost them, we are now also chakelled to our masters for many years to come. We have learned over the years not to believe our leaders, today is another warning of Europes next move, tax harmonisation & total control over each country’s taxation policies ( which the French have been banging about now for months….remember?).
Allow me a silly analogy: if your mechanic fixes your car, you pay him an drive away and a wheel falls off, you go back, he fixes the wheel, charges you again, you drive away, car breaks down, you tow car back, he fixes it, charges you again, you drive away…. And on it goes, at what point do you realise this guy is unreliable and it time to try a different tactic.
This Euro option is not working, and yet the highest paid brightest minds working in Brussels in strategy and economics seem to be causing greater errors. The collapse that has happened across Europe occurred in google or Microsoft you’d be gone in the morning! Why do they continue to have power over us. You may say that we caused our property crash, yes but surely the brightest minds of Brussels on day one in economics 101 were taught if you keep throwing cheap money at someone, eventually they might spend more than they can pay back. So they must have been totally incompetent and uneducated to not expect these countries to reach a bubble. That is exactly my main reason for wanting out of the Euro, they whoever they are guilty of mismanagement and incompetence by overprinting and throwing too much money around, they had a responsibility to protect the Euro and didn’t do it. They had their chance an blew it. We need to get out now.
Up yours merkozy! In the words of Nelson Munce, ha, ha!
The Euro as an idea has merit and a single currency has many advances. But we we’re promised that it would not lead to a unified tax system or EU controlled budgets yet France and German now are pushing for this using the crisis as an excuse as it seems that they have wanted this all along. If anyone thinks that this will mean better times for our economy they are dreaming, being good little Europeans who are playing along with our EU partners and that by doing so we would have a central part in the EU is being foolish. We would be tossed aside and our last bit of sovereignty would disappear. France and Germany are not good little Europeans they work in their own self interest and use the EU to do it not the other way round. Our economy would be in an ok state without the bank bailout, but we only got the EU & IMF money to maintain the bank bailout for one reason only. It was not being helped by our EU partners it was to protect France and German banks. If AIB & BOI collapse to whom french and German banks are hugely exposed this will bring down some of Frances and Germany’s largest banks, collapsing their economies and effectively ending the euro and in reality the EU. We are bailing our banks out and getting cash from EU not to help us but to protect them, and it’s irish taxpayers who ultimately will pay to protect French and German banks. But instead we are seen as the bold boys who won’t up our Corp tax etc. It’s one of the biggest con jobs ever. It’s time to learn from our EU parters and do what is best for us and take decisions in our self interest, end the bank bailout and ignore Europes directives that are damaging our economy. Yes we will take a hit but free of protecting French and German banks we will have a chance to recover our own economy the way things are and the way their headed we won’t and the 80′s will look like a time of prosperity and philanthropy.
We need to have a big public debate in Ireland on the whole euro question I don’t think our elected leaders are doing what is in our best interests.
As a citizen of Ireland I am not happy in the euro anymore I thought it was a great idea at the beginning but not anymore I am really unhappy about decisions being made by Germany and France and the likes of Noonan whom I no longer trust.
I think the people of Ireland should start to make it clear to the so called leaders that we want out of this euro.
I don’t care one bit about burning banks the French are up to their necks in bad bank loans to our stupid institutions and I don’t want to hear of this so called bailout, the French and Germans are being bailed out as far as I am concerned.
It’s time for Irish people to organise and demand the government does what we want.
The so called political elite are going to be very very sorry if they continue on this path.
The people want out of the euro now I hope we take back control over our own affairs and the sooner the better.
When we do we will have a public watching the government very very closely to make sure we never allow ourselves to get into a position like this again.
It’s a great country and our people are smart now we need the government to listen and serve our interests for once.
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