Monday's EU reprimand of Ireland received extensive coverage in European newspapers yesterday, but few reports were sympathetic towards the Irish stance.
The French newspaper Liberation expressed surprise that Ireland, which had received so much EU aid, risked destabilising the euro zone by ignoring the fact that monetary union required a minimum of economic co-ordination.
"Since its accession in 1973, the Republic has absorbed more than €31 billion (£24.4 billion). But with prosperity, a certain scepticism has developed towards Europe." In July Ms Mary Harney, the "deputy prime minister", had caused great shock when she said that Ireland was "spiritually closer to Boston than Berlin". The Financial Times Deutschland accepted some of Mr McCreevy's arguments about the Irish economy but said the Minister should have made them last June, when the economic policy guidelines were agreed.
"The rebuke against Ireland may be economically questionable. But the island state is itself to blame for the reprimand. If the Irish had taken economic policy co-ordination more seriously from the start, it would never have got this far."
The German business daily Handelsblatt doubted whether EU finance ministers would have been prepared to reprimand a larger member-state but believed the censure against Ireland was justified. The paper expressed the hope that Mr McCreevy would act swiftly to correct the problems identified in the recommendation.
Much Belgian coverage of the dispute focused on a remark by Belgium's Finance Minister, Mr Didier Reynards, calling for "a greater balance" between the cohesion funds Ireland receives from Brussels and Dublin's competitive tax policies.
The Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore condemned the reprimand and claimed that the Commission's proposals to enhance economic policy co-ordination was a ploy to extend the power of Brussels over national governments.
