Euro area agreement released

The english version, in pdf fprmat, of the agreement made in the early hours of the morning today is linked from here.

The proposal will depend on both secondary legislation and primary legislation which is anticipated being in place by next March, I quote the summarizing conclusion as follows:

 Some of the measures described above can be decided through secondary legislation. The euro area Heads of State or Government consider that the other measures should be contained in primary legislation. Considering the absence of unanimity among the EU Member States, they decided to adopt them through an international agreement to be signed in March or at an earlier date. The objective remains to incorporate these provisions into the treaties of the Union as soon as possible. The Heads of State or Government of Bulgaria, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania indicated their intention to join in the process. The Heads of State or Government of the Czech Republic and Sweden are consulting their Parliaments before taking a decision.

Such is an ambitious timetable, where the rush appears somewhat unnecessary, as none of the matters being considered actually seem to address any or all of the main financial and economic problems of the Euro Group! (The Finnish Parliament has obtained a veto over the 85% qualified voting majority provision on which I blogged yesterday).