After 10 hours of talks, the leaders of the euro zone states of the European Union approved a budget and tax reforms at the summit in Brussels. Thus, 17 members of the euro zone contributed to the Maastrichtian Treaty of the monetary and tax union.
Participants at the summit confirmed the need for all EU states to have balanced budgets. If a budget deficit exceeds 3% of a country's GDP, sanctions would be imposed. Sanctions may be avoided if three quarters of EU states vote against. This would be a balance between the French and German counter-crisis project prepared by EU President Herman von Rompuy.
The summit managed to enforce the Lisbon Treaty. The UK had high demands in order to help in reforming the EU budget control.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy blamed British Prime Minister David Cameron for dragging out the reform. The prime minister denied any fault for the failure of the summit.
In this case, France and Germany have an alternative solution to form a supplementary protocol to the Lisbon Treaty with new conditions only for the euro zone. Such a protocol would require the approval of governments and would not need ratification.
EU President Herman von Rompuy said that non-members of the euro zone may want to join the document. This means 9 other states.
Another aftermath of the summit is Bulgaria and Romania joining the Schengen Zone, which has been postponed until March 2012. The Netherlands still speaks out against the two states joining it. The other 24 Schengen members approved enlargement. Granting Serbia membership in the EU as an observer was postponed until 2012 as well. Several EU states demanded more concessions from Serbia after clashes in the northern part of Kosovo. German and Austrian military were also injured in the clashes.
