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"Europe rewrites Stability Pact," headlines Il Sole 24 Ore following a meeting of EU finance ministers to approve measures designed to avoid another crisis like the panic over Greek debt. After 13 hours of talks in Luxembourg, they ministers established an agreement in principle between the "German faction" (Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia), which advocates full-blown austerity, and the "Mediterranean faction" (France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Greece), which is demanding greater flexibility in the pact’s application. The compromise between the two sides, which must now be approved by the EU27 governments, will be the most significant change to the pact since it launched in 1999. It will notably feature automatic sanctions, like the suspension of voting rights, for countries that exceed authorised debt and deficit levels. However, the daily emphasises that several points still need to be negociated. As Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker explains, "the devil is in the detail, and the details have yet to be determined."
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