What’s more, existing EU Treaty provisions already allow for financial assistance to a Member State threatened with severe difficulties.4 “Where a Member State is in difficulties or is seriously threatened with severe difficulties caused by natural disasters or exceptional occurrences beyond its control, the Council, on a proposal from the Commission, may grant, under certain conditions, Union financial assistance to the Member State concerned.
Achieving fiscal targets is easier when the economy grows; more important, there are more jobs and more income to go around when the economy grows. In the face of weakening economic activity in many parts of the euro area there has been a tendency for international comment to consider the Irish economy’s current performance as rather good.