The European Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, looked like a pained schoolmaster as he explained why the EU wants to censure Ireland over its economic policies.
"We are the guardians of the euro. We must be serious and severe. You even have to be severe with your best pupil," he said.
By the time the Commission assembled around an oval table on the 12th floor of Brussels' Bradel building at 9 a.m. yesterday, it was clear that Ireland was in for a serious scolding. The 20 Commissioners were due to discuss the annual stability programmes of seven EU member-states.
After skipping through an analysis of the first six, they spent the next two hours talking about what to do about Ireland's most recent Budget.
Everyone, including the Economics Affairs Commissioner, Mr Pedro Solbes, acknowledged that Ireland was one of Europe's great economic success stories. Mr Solbes praised the generous Budget surplus and low public debt, both of which are comfortably in line with the EU's Stability and Growth Pact. And he welcomed structural reforms and the creation of the National Pensions Reserve Fund.
But when he turned to December's Budget, the soft-spoken Spaniard pulled no punches. He told his colleagues that the Budget's combination of tax cuts and public spending increases would add to the danger of overheating in the economy. And he said the Government had ignored repeated warnings that its policies were inconsistent with the EU's broad economic policy guidelines, which were agreed by EU finance ministers - including Mr McCreevy.
The Commission should, Mr Solbes said, ask the Council of Ministers (made up of the finance ministers from the member-states) to issue a "formal recommendation" that Ireland should bring its policies into line with EU guidelines.
Ireland's Commissioner, Mr David Byrne, highlighted Ireland's economic success and suggested that inflation was on its way downward. But most other Commissioners argued that it was important to establish the principle that member-states should not be allowed to renege on commitments they had made.
One Commissioner suggested that, although Ireland's small economy had little effect on the entire euro zone, allowing the Government to breach the policy guidelines could encourage larger countries to flout them in the future.
The Commission's proposal will be discussed next week by treasury officials from the member-states. A final decision will be made by EU finance ministers when they meet in Brussels on February 12th.
Mr McCreevy said last week that, when the proposed censure was discussed by euro-zone finance ministers, he was far from being isolated. But as Europe's bigger players push for greater economic policy co-ordination within the euro zone, his prospects of winning enough support to block the censure must be regarded as slender.
The best that the Government can reasonably hope for is that the EU's criticism of its policies will avoid specific recommendations to reverse measures in the Budget.
Although there is no concrete penalty for ignoring the EU's recommendation, failure to heed such a strong warning could have real political consequences within the European arena.
