Budget plan leak 'the sole responsibility of German authorities'

The European Commission has today moved to deflect anger from the Irish Government after a confidential details of an Irish Budget plan were leaked, saying that it was "the sole responsibility of the German authorities”.

The document, presented to the Bundestag finance committee in Germany, stated that that next month's Irish Budget will increase the rate of VAT by 2%.

“Elements of the confidential draft programme documents for Ireland were reported in the press yesterday,” said a European Commission's Representation in Ireland. “These documents were not final and were not signed by the Irish government. Decisions on the budget have not been taken yet.”

“The Commission, as a member of the Troika, has a mandate from the Member States to report on the contents of the quarterly review and share all the relevant information with the Governments. Ireland sees the same information from the Troika about Greece, for example.

“With this information, Member States are in a position to endorse the conclusions and decide to proceed with the disbursement of the next instalment of the financial assistance programme .

“In the case of Germany, we understand there is a legal obligation to share this information with the Budget Committee of the Bundestag as it has a central role in deciding on these disbursements. What happened there is the sole responsibility of the German authorities.”