Wall Street Journal
November 26, 2011
Euro-zone countries are weighing a new plan to accelerate the integration of their fiscal policies, people familiar with the matter said, as Europe's leaders race to convince investors they can resolve the region's debt crisis and keep the currency area from fracturing.
Under the proposed plan, national governments would seal bilateral agreements that wouldn't take as long as a cumbersome change to European Union treaties, according to people familiar with the matter. Some German and French officials fear that an EU treaty change could take far too long. That has prompted the search for a faster option.
The plan, which hasn't been finalized, would allow the euro zone to announce a speedy change to its governance. European authorities would gain tough new powers to enforce fiscal discipline in the 17 countries that make up the euro zone, the people said. EU treaty changes could then follow at a later stage.
The precedent that euro-zone governments are considering is the Schengen agreement, under which a subset of EU countries scrapped passport controls at their mutual borders. The EU treaty allows countries to engage in "enhanced cooperation" if at least nine countries agree, circumventing the need for a unanimous treaty change among all 27 EU members.
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