If Ireland votes YES to this treaty, it will mean that we are
participating in the ESM. This has been portrayed as a good thing in the event
we need a future bailout. However, the ESM is a different treaty, hidden behind
the one you are being asked to vote on. The reason it’s being hidden is clear
when you look at the details included in it.
Firstly, Ireland will have an initial liability of over €11.1 billion
to pay into the ESM. This can be increased on request by the ESM at any point
and we’ll have 7 days to pay up. So what we’re doing here is borrowing money,
at 3%, to put into a bailout mechanism that may or may not give us a loan in
future. It has been argued that this bailout fund, at €700,000,000 will not be
enough, particularly with Spain in severe trouble. So if they need a bailout,
and we’ve put 11billion in, they may not have enough to give Ireland anything.
Then you have to look at the clauses in the treaty. This video
will give you an idea of how dangerous participation in the ESM actually is.
In Ireland, and throughout Europe, nobody has been held
accountable for the crisis we are in. The immunity clauses illustrate that that
will continue in perpetuity.
ARTICLE 9
Capital calls
The Board of Governors may call in authorised
unpaid capital at any time and set an appropriate period of time for its
payment by the ESM Members.
ARTICLE 32
Legal status, privileges
and immunities
1. To enable the ESM to
fulfil its purpose, the legal status and the privileges and immunities set out
in this Article shall be accorded to the ESM in the territory of each ESM
Member. The ESM shall endeavour to obtain recognition of its legal status and
of its privileges and immunities in other territories in which it performs
functions or holds assets.
2. The ESM shall have full
legal personality; it shall have full legal capacity to:
(a) acquire and dispose of
movable and immovable property;
(b) contract;
(c) be a party to legal
proceedings; and
(d) enter into a
headquarter agreement and/or protocols as necessary for ensuring that its legal
status and its privileges and immunities are recognised and enforced.
3. The ESM, its property,
funding and assets, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall enjoy
immunity from every form of judicial process except to the extent that the ESM
expressly waives its immunity for the purpose of any proceedings or by the
terms of any contract, including the documentation of the funding instruments.
4. The property, funding
and assets of the ESM shall, wherever located and by whomsoever held, be immune
from search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation or any other form of
seizure, taking or foreclosure by executive, judicial, administrative or
legislative action.
5. The archives of the ESM
and all documents belonging to the ESM or held by it, shall be inviolable.
T/ESM 2012/en 47
6. The premises of the ESM shall be inviolable.
7. The official
communications of the ESM shall be accorded by each ESM Member and by each
state which has recognised the legal status and the privileges and immunities
of the ESM, the same treatment as it accords to the official communications of
an ESM Member.
8. To the extent necessary
to carry out the activities provided for in this Treaty, all property, funding
and assets of the ESM shall be free from restrictions, regulations, controls
and moratoria of any nature.
9. The ESM shall be
exempted from any requirement to be authorised or licensed as a credit
institution, investment services provider or other authorised licensed or
regulated entity under the laws of each ESM Member.
ARTICLE 33
Staff of the ESM
The Board of Directors
shall lay down the conditions of employment of the Managing Director and other
staff of the ESM. T/ESM 2012/en 48
ARTICLE 34
Professional secrecy
The Members or former
Members of the Board of Governors and of the Board of Directors and any other
persons who work or have worked for or in connection with the ESM shall not
disclose information that is subject to professional secrecy. They shall be
required, even after their duties have ceased, not to disclose information of
the kind covered by the obligation of professional secrecy.
ARTICLE 35
Immunities of persons
In the interest of the ESM,
the Chairperson of the Board of Governors, Governors, alternate Governors,
Directors, alternate Directors, as well as the Managing Director and other
staff members shall be immune from legal proceedings with respect to acts
performed by them in their official capacity and shall enjoy inviolability in
respect of their official papers and documents.
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