A lot of the Lisbon treaty talk revolves around Ireland surrendering sovereignty to Europe but in taking the ECB low interest loan aren’t we at the mercy of Europe’s decision makers going forward.
This rate is not fixed in any treaty and as such can be set to anything and could even vary for different governments.
Couldn’t it then be used a bargaining chip (behind the scenes) next time Europe wants us to vote for something against our will such as tax harmonisation?.
Needless to say I’m sceptical to the extent which the ECB is free from influence by heads of European governments.
Would you say the 0.5% over ECB is set low to enable our government to sell the Nama idea to the people and that is unlikely to track the ECB rate going forward?