Ireland seeks bailout by European Union

Ireland has begun preliminary talks with the European Union, with a view to securing a financial bailout to avert state bankruptcy. Although a formal application has yet to be made, loans could be sought as early as next month, according to reports.

The International Monetary Fund has said it can help Ireland, but has not received any request from the Dublin government.

The extent of the funds that Dublin will seek is thought to be in the region of €60-80 billion. More important than the sums involved, it signifies that attempts to prevent not just Ireland but several other European countries from sliding towards economic meltdown are unravelling. The future of the entire European Union is increasingly imperilled.

As with the bailout made available to Greece earlier this year, EU or IMF money will come with demands for intensified austerity—even though Ireland has already slashed over €14 billion from spending since 2008 and has plans for a further €15 billion of cuts over the coming four years.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/nov2010/irel-n15.shtml

And still the banks ride high while laying nations low.

K&R

of repaying them.”

As I understand it, a default on the part of any participating member of the EU would mean the equivalent of a U.S. state defaulting on it's debts: it would serve to discredit the "Federal" component of the government, the extent to which would depend on the "size" (GDP - actual debt) of the state in question.

What I fail to understand is why the EU simply doesn't just assume its member states debts, as happened here in fits & starts throughout the nineteenth century, culminating in the Reconstruction era repudiation of Confederate debts, while absorbing those legitimate ones hanging around from the antebellum period? It would seem the ideal solution to the EU's current "austerity" woes.

:shrug:

Though it would probably be the Eurozone countries, rather than the whole EU, that would be expected to pay.

The other Eurozone countries, led by Germany, aren't keen on putting money into Ireland if they can avoid it. And, if they do, they're going to demand more control over Irish economic policy, which the Irish government is loath to give up.