Having failed to reach an agreement of all 27 EU members, the 17 eurozone countries and the other EU states apart from the UK are expected to sign up to the new deal, which includes:
• a commitment to “balanced budgets” for eurozone countries- defined as a structural deficit no greater than 0.5% of gross domestic product – to be written into national constitutions
• automatic sanctions for any eurozone country whose deficit exceeds 3% of GDP
• a requirement to submit their national budgets to the European Commission, which will have the power to request that they be revised
Mr Cameron said the abandoned treaty change involving all 27 members had been in danger of “distorting the single market”.
“I think I did the right thing for Britain,” he said. “We were offered a treaty that didn’t have proper safeguards for Britain and I decided it was not right to sign that treaty.”
via BBC News – David Cameron defends decision to block EU-wide treaty.