Move to limit scope of eurozone treaty

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Series Details 16.12.11
Publication Date 16/12/2011
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Article reports developments on the eurozone debt crisis on the 15 December 2011 and suggests that European negotiators say momentum is building towards making a highly touted new treaty on budgetary discipline extremely narrow, enabling its smoother passage through national parliaments but hindering Franco-German ambitions to create a fiscal union in the eurozone.

Diplomats said several European Union countries are lining up in favour of a draft that would contain only two elements: a so-called 'debt brake' obliging signatories to write debt and deficit limits into national constitutions; and a measure making EU sanctions against fiscal rule-breakers more automatic.

A process focused on EU legislation has long been urged by European Commission leaders, who have argued that much of the discipline urged by Germany is achievable through existing treaties and requires no new pacts.

France had continued to push for a treaty that would set up parallel bureaucracies within existing EU institutions to co-ordinate and monitor eurozone fiscal policy.

All 27 EU leaders (including the United Kingdom) would meet again in Brussels at the end of January or in early February 2012 to take stock of work on the new inter-governmental treaty and discuss measures aimed at boosting economic growth, EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy said.

Related Links
ESO: Background information: EU treaty hopes come under strain http://www.europeansources.info/record/eu-treaty-hopes-come-under-strain/
EUObserver, 13.12.11: EU Commission pushing for narrowest possible treaty http://euobserver.com/843/114618
EUObserver, 15.12.11: EU leaders to meet again at end of January http://euobserver.com/18/114653
European Parliament: Press Release, 15.12.11: EP delegation joins working group drafting new intergovernmental agreement http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pressroom/content/20111215IPR34300/html/EP-delegation-joins-working-group-drafting-new-intergovernmental-agreement

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