Europe: ignoring the Lisbon Treaty when it suits them

Is Greece too big to fail? When the Eurozone project was up and running, its taxpayers were promised: this was not a system where they’d have to bail out a badly-run country like Greece or Italy (or Brown’s Britain, were we members). But this rule (a clause in the Lisbon Treaty) is being torn up with various assurances from Germany and the ECB that they Greece is too big to fail – and they’d rather put their taxpayers’ wonga on the table than risk their precious promise. I made this point in my News of the World column yesterday (that bit not online). Here’s the story:

1. The Eurozone did have a clear ‘no bailout’ promise. Taxpayers of the Eurozone were given an explicit no-bailout policy when they signed up (in the instances, of course, where they were given a say). Art. 103 of the Maastricht Treaty (now Lisbon Treaty) says “any … type of credit facility … in favour of Community institutions or bodies..