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EU meets for crucial eurozone summit

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 08.12.2011 09:25
Prime Minister Donald Tusk will be among EU leaders gathering in Brussels today for a crucial summit which could affect the future of the eurozone.

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President Nicholas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel will be pushing at the summit for new treaties to be introduced to bring more fiscal discipline to national budgets and stricter sanctions against rule breakers.

Poland is adamant that any changes to treaties, or the introduction of new ones, must include non-eurozone members, too.

European Affairs minister Mikolaj Dowgielewicz has said he expects long, tough talks to try and get a consensus among the 27 nations.

“We are packing extra shirts and socks,” he joked.

According to Poland, any cooperation towards strengthening economic governance and financial discipline - whether by treaty or by intergovernmental agreements, should cover "all eurozone countries, but should also be open to countries outside the eurozone that wish to join it," Minister Dowgielewicz said this week.

Poland, as the current head of the EU presidency, has also prepared a 14 page report on discussions which have been ongoing since June on the EU budget for the period 2014 – 2020, another controversial issue where consensus must be found.

Balkans

On Friday, Croatia will sign its EU Accession treaty so as to be able to join the bloc in July next year.

The Polish presidency is also seeking a unified stance on Serbia's application to join the EU, with much depending on dialogue continuing between Serbia and Kosovo.

“We believe that the dialogue is the best way to find solutions to bilateral relations. We assess positively the first rounds of EU-mediated process [between Belgrade and Priština] and hope that the tendency will be continued,” Mikolaj Dowgielewicz said.

Serbia has yet to recognise Kosovo as an independent state.

Before the summit in Brussels - which begins with a working dinner at 19.00 CET today, Donald Tusk will be in Marseilles attending a meeting of the European People's Party, the chrstian democrat bloc in the European Parliament which his party, Civic Platform, is a member. (pg)

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