Viviane Reding said Ireland had nothing to fear from a new treaty to reinforce the single currency, an initiative viewed in Brussels as a step towards a federation of nation states.
Viviane Reding said she would be astonished if the Irish people rejected such a treaty, and said they should place their trust in political leaders who were trying to strengthen Europe’s foundations for the future. Reding, vice-president of the commission and EU Commissioner for Justice, argued that the debt crisis has exposed the need to deepen European integration, but said moves towards a new treaty should not take place behind closed doors.
Reding said: “From what I personally have experienced from your people, I would be very much astonished if the Irish people would not say: ‘Yes, we want a strong Ireland in a strong Europe because that is the best guarantee that the Irish citizen will be secure and will have a preserved future’”.
Reding had nothing to disclose about the Government’s campaign for bank debt relief beyond saying “everyone” recognised the problem remained unsolved. Like other senior European politicians, she said Ireland was an exemplar for other stricken countries and was going in the right direction. “The crisis was not the fault of Europe or of the euro. At the time the housing bubble burst in Ireland it was the national supervisors who were responsible for supervising their banks – and they did not do a great job”, she said.
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