David Norris (Independent)

We have had the collapse of the Dutch Government as a result of the withdrawal of one of the partners because they cannot afford the €15 billion austerity cuts, and this is one of the few countries in Europe with a triple A rating. If it cannot afford the treaty, how on earth are we supposed to do so?

We have a situation where the drafters of the treaty are quite unable to give satisfactory definitions of the difference between "fiscal" and "monetary". These are to be left to the interpretation of bureaucrats. This is the type of trouble we got into before with them.