Sinn Féin opposes Euro Monetary Union
Sinn Féin National Chairperson and Assembly member for Foyle, Mitchel
McLaughlin, this week outlined the party's opposition to European
Monetary Union. Describing the project as ``detrimental to the future
of the Irish economy'' McLaughlin called for a concerted campaign to
challenge EMU.
Outlining the economic priorities which are guiding monetary union
McLaughlin said; ``The key policy objective of EMU is wholly dictated
by tight deflationary fiscal criteria without any consideration of
the impact of such policies on questions of unemployment, income and
wage levels and social welfare protection.''
EMU, which came into effect across most of the EU last January, with
the exception of Britain and the Six Counties, involves harmonising
fiscal policy across member states. Rather than domestic governments
developing their own policy a new European Central Bank will set
standard interest and exchange rates.
Critics suggest that the economies of European member states develop
at different rates and react differently to crises or downturns in
the European economy, a single centralised fiscal policy will have
different implications for different countries. The policy of the
European Central Bank will inevitably be set in accordance with major
players such as Germany, France and Italy. Ireland as a peripheral
economy will lose out as European policy may not match domestic
economic needs
McLaughlin said that this imbalance will mean: ``Governments will thus
seek to increase the flexibility of the labour market in order to
compensate for the loss of monetary policy as an economic instrument.
``This means more unemployment, underemployment, part time and low
pay employment. None of which is good news for the Irish economy.''
McLaughlin also highlighted the fact that: ``Because the Six Counties
has remained outside EMU and the 26 Counties inside it, another tier
of obstacles have been placed in the way of creating a truly all
Ireland economy. For Sinn Féin, which believes that such
harmonisation is essential for the development and regeneration of
the economy as a whole, such a situation is more bad news.''
Calling for a campaign to counter these negative effects of EMU
McLaughlin said; ``It is imperative that Sinn Féin builds a stratgic
project aimed at using the institutions of the EU to campaign for a
different kind of economic policy. We must actively build alliances
at home and abroad with like minded political parties and other
sectors, in order to create a more people centered economic policy in
Europe. It is our belief that monetary union runs contrary to such a
policy.
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