European Council Unity dearly bought

[xchrom]

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/1268111-unity-dearly-bought

Was this the night the euro was saved? Or will those ten hours go down in history as the meeting that broke the EU? In any event, the heads of government of the 27 EU countries could hardly have set the stage for the ongoing finale of Operation Save the Euro any more dramatically.

Before the actual meeting on Thursday evening, Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron had already got together in a threesome: the Briton, that much was certain, would play in a major role in the coming hours. What followed was a hard, sometimes very hard struggle before the French President, shortly after five in the morning, came out to announce the outcome of the all-night negotiations.

More specifically, there are two outcomes, and in the coming days and weeks the question will be which of the two has more weight: the message that the euro-zone countries have agreed to stricter rules for their fiscal policies? Or the fact that not all 27 states will join in the agreement?

A bad hand of cards went to Cameron

The German position was clear from the beginning: Merkel would like to have had an agreement on changing the treaties with all 27 European Union member states. At the same time, she left no doubt that she would go ahead if necessary with just the 17 euro countries and other willing states. The agreement on the issue was more important to her than the unity of the 27.

[bemildred]

1. Sounds like bullshit to me. nt

[xchrom]

2. They all sound confused.

Like they don't know what's happened.

That's scarey.

[bemildred]

3. Some strange notion of "unity" they have. nt

[xchrom]

4. i'm really not getting it.

merkel would have dumped the 27 nation union if she didn't get her way -- britain goes it's own way -- and sarkozy looks like a 'winner' and nobody knows what the agreement means.

fuckin chaos is what it sounds like.

[dipsydoodle]

6. I wouldn't have put The Frog Prince

down as being a "winner". He would "like" a drift of the financial sector from London to Paris , which he isn't going to get , and the way things are going he may now eventually lose the UK's payments into EU subsidies for French farmers.

We're in an odd situation now. It looks as though the UK may now have reduced input into EU policies which means that if the EU does anything to change the ball game which is against UK interests we'll automatically have a referendum.

[xchrom]

5. it's crazy -- check this one out: Goodbye Britain

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief-cover/1267001-goodbye-britain

"27-member Europe is finished," headlines Le Monde, in the wake of the agreement concluded in Brussels by the 17 Eurozone states and six other European countries.

Faced with British Prime Minister’s "bluff" that he would impose a veto on any reform of European treaties, the 17 Eurozone states "wearily decided to close ranks without him, in a bid to put an end to the crisis that has rocked the monetary union: between now and March 2012, they have agreed to negotiate an intergovernmental treaty, the option privileged by Nicolas Sarkozy, to ensure that the budgetary discipline demanded Angela Merkel is set in stone," reports the French daily.

For Le Monde, the agreement, which will pave the way for the reform of the treaty that regulates the manner in which the 27-member EU operates, constitutes:

A choice with major consequences, that will bring about the emergence of a two-speed Europe, from which the United Kingdom may be increasingly excluded by core Eurozone countries guided for better or for worse by Germany and France, the two main economies of the monetary union.