{"id":9017,"date":"2011-12-08T20:21:10","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T20:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/12\/eu-leaders-begin-crucial-summit\/"},"modified":"2011-12-08T20:21:10","modified_gmt":"2011-12-08T20:21:10","slug":"eu-leaders-begin-crucial-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/08\/eu-leaders-begin-crucial-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"EU leaders begin crucial summit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span><span>8 December 2011<\/span> <span>Last updated at<\/span> <span>20:21 GMT<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/57220000\/jpg\/_57220031_013485001-1.jpg\" width=\"304\" height=\"171\" alt=\"German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives at EU summit (8 December 2011)\" \/><span>Chancellor Merkel says the credibility of the euro must be restored<\/span><\/div>\n<p>EU leaders in Brussels have opened a summit to tackle the eurozone debt crisis and save the single currency.<\/p>\n<p>The key item on the agenda is a Franco-German proposal on budgetary discipline, with automatic penalties for eurozone nations that overspend.<\/p>\n<p>Pre-summit talks between Britain, France and Germany broke up without agreement as each set out its position.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the euro had &#8220;lost credibility&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>UK Prime Minister David Cameron has said he will veto anything which harms British interests.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Cameron, Chancellor Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy held a 45-minute meeting on the eve of the summit, but sources told the BBC there was &#8220;no movement&#8221; with each side setting out their respective ground.<\/p>\n<p>Downing Street sources said the negotiations were &#8220;going to be difficult&#8221; and they did not expect any wider agreement among EU leaders until the early hours of the morning, if that, the BBC&#8217;s Iain Watson, in Brussels, reports.<\/p>\n<p>In a speech in Marseille earlier on Thursday President Sarkozy warned that &#8220;never has the risk of disintegration been greater&#8221; for Europe.<\/p>\n<p>The leaders of the 27 EU nations were sitting down for an informal dinner, and their talks &#8211; behind closed doors &#8211; were expected to last well into the night, ahead of a number of working sessions on Friday.<\/p>\n<p><span>Penalties<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Germany and France are pushing for changes to the EU treaty, saying stricter fiscal rules should be made part of basic EU law.<\/p>\n<p>The Franco-German plan is based on the following key provisions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the European Commission to have the power to impose penalties for nations that run excessive budget deficits<\/li>\n<li>all 17 eurozone nations should amend their national legislation to require balanced budgets<\/li>\n<li>the eurozone countries to have common corporation and financial transaction taxes<\/li>\n<li>any future bailouts would not require private investors to absorb part of the costs, as happened in the case of Greece<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As Mrs Merkel arrived at the summit venue in Brussels, she told journalists: &#8220;The euro has lost credibility and that needs to be restored.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She said the European Commission and the European Court of Justice would have more powers in future to enforce the rules, declaring: &#8220;We must make clear that we accept more co-ordination.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Never has Europe been so necessary. Never has it been in so much danger,&#8221; said Mr Sarkozy at a meeting of EU centre-right leaders in Marseille.<\/p>\n<p>He said the eurozone economies still had a few weeks to decide, but that time was working against them.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier on Thursday, the European Central Bank (ECB) cut interest rates back to their historic low of 1%, as expected by financial markets.<\/p>\n<p>ECB President Mario Draghi called again for governments to cut their borrowing and reform their economies, but did not mention any new financial support from the ECB for struggling governments.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have a treaty that says no monetary financing to governments,&#8221; he told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has put forward an alternative plan, a fast-track &#8220;fiscal compact&#8221; that does not need lengthy ratification by parliaments or national referendums.<\/p>\n<p>The EU&#8217;s most recent treaty, adopted in Lisbon in 2007, took eight years to negotiate.<\/p>\n<p>But Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt warned that changing the treaty would take time and trigger the need for a referendum.<\/p>\n<p>In recent days, smaller EU nations have complained they are being forced to follow the agenda of Germany and France, with very little room for discussion, says the BBC&#8217;s Chris Morris, in Brussels.<\/p>\n<p>An advisory committee to the Finnish parliament has warned that the Franco-German plan may be unconstitutional because it replaces the majority veto on the fund for future bailouts with majority voting.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> 8 December 2011 Last updated at 20:21 GMT Chancellor Merkel says the credibility of the euro must be restored EU leaders in Brussels have opened a summit to tackle the eurozone debt crisis and save the single currency. The key item on the agenda is a Franco-German proposal on budgetary discipline, with automatic penalties for eurozone nations that overspend. Pre-summit talks between Britain, France and Germany broke up without agreement as each set out its position<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>EU leaders begin crucial summit - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/08\/eu-leaders-begin-crucial-summit\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"EU leaders begin crucial summit - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"8 December 2011 Last updated at 20:21 GMT Chancellor Merkel says the credibility of the euro must be restored EU leaders in Brussels have opened a summit to tackle the eurozone debt crisis and save the single currency. 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