Monthly Archives: March 2013

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It’s time now to stand up and clap,
They’ve worked out a deal on the CAP,
It seems that the farmers,
Those silver tongued charmers,
Will get paid if they don’t do a tap.

John Moynes

Above, from left: John Bryan, Henry Burns and JJ Kavanagh of the Irish Farmers’ Association, protesting outside Dublin Castle [EU Presidency 2013 HQ] last week.

(Wanderley Massafelli/Photocall Ireland)

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Labour MEP Nessa Childers has called for EU economics commissioner Olli Rehn to resign over the Cypriot bailout.

She described as a “terrible mistake” the €10bn deal which includes small Cypriot depositors with less than € 100,000 in the levy on bank accounts.

Ms Childers has written to Europe an Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso asking for Mr Rehn’s resignation over the “fiasco”.

“It is simply unfair, undemocratic and could even lead to a bank run in other parts of Europe,” she said in a statement today.

The decision to impose losses on small depositors “crossed an extremely important red line in the crisis” and “must be reversed immediately”, she said.

Ms Childers says while the ECB, IMF, Cyprian government and all finance ministers involved share the blame, the blunder by Mr Rehn come after “years of failed austerity policy” presided over by him.

Childers seeks Rehn resignation over Cyprus (Genevieve Carberry, Irish Times)

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)