BRUSSELS — A European Union official says the 27 EU leaders have failed to agree on changing their treaty and the 17 eurozone countries are now trying to reach their own accord. The official said early today that other non-euro countries are invited to join the new treaty.
The official was speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information.
The new treaty is meant to set up much tighter rules on national fiscal policy for the 17 countries that use the euro in an attempt to solve the worsening debt crisis. However, failure to get the whole EU to agree on the new rules is bound to complicate these issues.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought a plan that would require other governments to balance their budgets and accept automatic sanctions if they don’t. At the same time, the currency bloc’s largest economies are being pushed to commit more money to boost eurozone firewalls.
