EU COMMISSION president José Manuel Barroso rarely loses his cool.
But yesterday he was moved to visible anger in the European Parliament in response to taunts from Socialist MEP Joe Higgins over the EU-IMF bailout for Ireland.
Speaking in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Mr Higgins attacked the deal as a mechanism to turn Irish taxpayers into “vassals” for European banks.
He also questioned the morality of transferring to taxpayers the responsibility for bad debts of banks and said the proposed permanent bailout scheme was no more than a tool to cushion banks from the consequences of reckless speculation.
“It is a mechanism to make working-class people throughout Europe pay for the crisis of a broken financial system and a crisis-ridden European capitalism.”
Mr Higgins’ remarks – and a blunt attack by British Eurosceptic Nigel Farage – drew an unusually spirited response from the commission president. His voice rising, Mr Barroso said Europe was “part of the solution” for Ireland and did not create the country’s financial problems.
“To the distinguished member of this parliament that comes from Ireland, who asked a question suggesting that the problems of Ireland were created by Europe, let me tell you: the problems of Ireland were created by the irresponsible financial behaviour of some Irish institutions and by the lack of supervision in the Irish market,” he said.
“Europe is now part of the solution; it is trying to support Ireland. But it was not Europe that created this fiscally irresponsible situation and this financially irresponsible behaviour. Europe is trying to support Ireland. It is important to know where the responsibility lies. And this is why it is important that those of us, and this is clearly the majority, who believe in European ideals, that we are able as much as possible to have a common response.”
At the conclusion of a debate in which Mr Farage said “I hope and pray the markets break you”, Mr Barroso said he was amazed at the tenor of some of the remarks made to him.
“To those who made those comments . . . against European solidarity . . . I ask them – where were you when Europe was financing your farmers after the war to feed your own people?”
