Calls for McCreevy to be sacked from commissioner post

DEMANDS for Charlie McCreevy to be removed from his post as Internal Market Commissioner were made in the European Parliament.

The call came on the eve of the summit of EU leaders that begins in Brussels today and which will be dominated by discussion on the result of the Irish referendum.

During the parliament debate on the result of the Irish vote in the Lisbon Treaty referendum, Mr McCreevy was attacked by the head of the second largest group in the Parliament.

This was the second time in two days that Martin Schulz criticised the Irish Commissioner for his admission that he had not read the Treaty.

Mr McCreevy’s statements in Ireland about the inaccessibility of the treaty and his suggestion that it was not necessary to read it had done little to help in the campaign, the leader of the Socialists said.

He said the Irish Commissioner’s internal market portfolio should be taken from him — not for being unhelpful in the referendum campaign but because of his economic policies.

He accused the former Finance Minister of engaging in a one-sided drive for what he called, “deregulation at any cost without social flanking measures”.

But Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso lent Mr McCreevy a helping hand when he told the Parliament they should not try to find easy scapegoats.

“Attacking the Irish Commissioner is not the best way to have a constructive dialogue. We will only solve the problem when we concentrate on citizens’ expectations,” he said.

This recalled the rows over the Services Directive, which Mr McCreevy successfully steered through parliament having removed most of the elements the Socialists objected to at the time.

The draft of this directive, dubbed the Balkestein Directive after Mr McCreevy’s predecessor who was responsible for it, was blamed for the French voting against the constitution.