European Union leaders opened a make-or-break summit yesterday aiming to resolve a crippling debt crisis as the French President, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, warned there would be no “second chance” to save the euro zone.
Mr Sarkozy sounded a shrill warning as leaders gathered in Brussels, saying that Europe risked an “explosion” if the summit failed.
The German Chancellor, Ms Angela Merkel, said leaders must restore “credibility” to the currency as she arrived for the summit, while, amid fears that the euro zone’s woes could trigger a global economic downturn, the US President, Mr Barack Obama, urged EU leaders to be “serious and bold’’.
Amid growing divisions between the euro zone and non-euro states like Britain and Poland, EU leaders have to find hard cash to convince investors that they can stand behind weak links Italy and Spain.
The two-day Brussels summit began around 8:00 pm local time, but was bogged down in rows over changing the bloc’s treaty to galvanise the euro zone even before it commenced.
Leading the charge for treaty change are a club of top EU powerbrokers, including the leaders of Germany and France, the head of the European Central Bank (ECB) and three top euro zone officials.
They met in closed-door talks before the summit opening to firm up plans on redrafting the treaty in a bid to better enforce budgetary discipline.
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