EU summit: All but two leaders sign fiscal treaty

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Source: BBC News

All but two of the EU's 27 leaders have signed a new treaty to enforce budget discipline within the bloc.

The "fiscal compact" aims to prevent the 17 eurozone countries again running up huge debts.

It must now be ratified by individual parliaments and, in the case of the Irish Republic, a referendum.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who with the Czechs refused to sign, said his proposals for cutting red tape and promoting business had been ignored.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17230760

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9.57am: Herman van Rompuy, the slighty gnomic president of the European Council, has given a little pep talk to the 25 heads of government who signed up to the new fiscal rulebook this morning.

Signing was the easy bit because now the 25 have to go back and ratify the treaty, which has been set up outside the usual EU structures because Britain and the Czech Republic refused to allow EU institutions such as the Commission to be invloved in enforcing the rules. Ireland, as we saw this week, is already planning a referendum.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/mar/02/eurozone-crisis-live-eu-summit-growth