There’s a fair alternative to McCreevy’s Europe

THE current controversy in which EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy has embroiled himself, by explicitly siding with a Latvian company taking a European court case against Sweden’s social partnership model, is no minor storm in a teacup.

It goes to the heart of the debate about what kind of Europe we want and what Europe is for.

The McCreevy dogma runs thus: deregulate the economy, which will stimulate growth, which will provide the resources to put in place a safety net for those the market excludes.