Day one of the EU heads of government summit may have broken up after 1 a.m., but European officials were already up early Friday to conduct their regular post-mortem of the drawn out fight from the night before.
At a breakfast with reporters, Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, said that too much attention had been paid to the dust-up over the demand by German chancellor Angela Merkel to reopen the EU’s treaties in order to insert new language aimed at preventing another Greek-style crisis.
Mr Barroso noted that the EU leaders unanimously endorsed a set of new budget rules – the product of months of sometimes contentious negotiations – that would enable the EU to fine member states who regularly violate eurozone debt norms.
Across the globe: Gideon Rachman and his FT colleagues debate international affairs on