Post date: Jan 30, 2012 11:3:40 PM
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (JANUARY 30, 2012) (REUTERS) - Twenty-five of the European Union's 27 countries have signed up to a new treaty involving tighter fiscal rules, with only Britain and the Czech Republic opposed, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday (January 30) in Brussels.
Twenty-five of the European Union's 27 countries have signed up to a new treaty involving tighter fiscal rules, with only Britain and the Czech Republic opposed, French President Nicolas Sarkozy says.
The new treaty calls on signatories to introduce a balanced budget rule into national legislation.British Prime Minister David Cameron made clear at a summit in December that he would not take part.
In a surprise move, the Czech Republic also stayed outside the deal, Sarkozy said.
"The Czech prime minister told us that for constitutional reasons, he did not wish to accede to the future treaty. We have taken note of that decision which is some kind of clarification. I'm not sufficiently familiar with the ins and outs of what is going on in Prague to be able to understand why what was acceptable in December is no longer acceptable now. I don't know but there we are, so it will be a treaty with 25 members because the Danish prime minister told us that her parliament has given her the authority to ratify the treaty," Sarkozy said.
The new deal is expected to be signed at a ceremony on March 1, when EU leaders meet for their next summit.
Sarkozy also said he was hoping for a deal on Greece in the next few days.
Greece is currently negotiating the restructuring 200 billion euros of debt with private bondholders. Athens is also hoping to secure a second bailout package that the country needs before March if it want to avoid a default.
Germany caused outrage in Greece by proposing that a European commissar take control of Greek public finances to ensure it meets fiscal targets. Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said that to make his country choose between national dignity and financial assistance ignored the lessons of history.
Sarkozy said it had never be Merkel's intention to control Greek public finances from abroad.
"We cannot put any country as it were under that type of surveillance. I've talked about this with the Chancellor (of Germany), and that is exactly her position as she explained to me. And you were right to say, some people in Germany, it's not a position expressed or defended by Chancellor Merkel. It doesn't mean we cannot put in place a surveillance of the commitments. But it's obvious that we can't place a country under surveillance just like that, to run it from abroad. It wouldn't be reasonable, it wouldn't be democratic and it wouldn't be efficient," Sarkozy said.
Finally, Sarkozy talked about a three-speed Europe -- saying it was not what it may looked like at first sight.
"This is something that is important to understand. There will be three levels of meetings. When it's the single market, the 27 will meet; when it's the euro plus pact, in other words when it's all those who are in the euro or wish to join the euro who meet, that will be 25 or 26 of us; and when it's matters pertaining exclusively to the euro area, then it will be 17 members who will meet. That is the way things will operate from now on. That doesn't mean that it's a multi-speed Europe, it doesn't mean that there are countries that will be left on the sidelines, on the contrary, it just means that there are different degrees of integration," Sarkozy said.
Monday's summit was the 17th EU summit in just two years.
Officially, the half-day summit was meant to focus mainly on ways to rekindle growth and create jobs at a time when governments across Europe are having to cut public spending and raise taxes to tackle mountains of debt.
But disputes over the limits of austerity, and about Greece's unresolved debt restructuring negotiations with private bondholders, may once more grab the headlines.