EU officials lay out draft fiscal deal ahead of summit

EU OFFICIALS have laid out a new agreement to tighten fiscal rules for the eurozone and other participating EU countries yesterday, hoping to push ahead with deeper economic integration and get on top of the two-year-old debt crisis.

EU members will discuss the eight-page draft for the first time at a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, with the aim of securing ratification from at least nine eurozone countries potentially by the end of January, a threshold that would bring the agreement into force as soon as March.

The deal — dubbed a new “fiscal compact” by ECB chief Mario Draghi — was drafted after a summit on December 8-9, when all EU leaders, except Britain’s David Cameron, agreed it was the right way forward.