If the eurozone’s presidents and prime ministers were hoping to get home at a reasonable hour Sunday night after their much-anticipated summit, they can pretty much forget it.
The European Council, which organises such gatherings, just released the schedule of events for Sunday, and the meeting of the 17 members of the single currency won’t even begin until 4pm, with a “working dinner” scheduled to start at 7:15pm.
The last time they met for such a high-pressure gathering – the big Greek deal on July 21 – the session started at noon, and even then the meeting went late into the evening, breaking up only after nine hours of deliberations. If past is prologue, European leaders could still be negotiating when Asian markets open Monday morning.
The reason for the late start is the need to hold a regular EU summit – with all 27 members – before the eurozone has its own separate session. That meeting will get underway at 10:30am and is scheduled to go until 3pm. It also could be eventful, since a decision on how to conduct bank recapitalisations, one of the three main issues to be tackled, will be handled EU-wide and not just in the eurozone.
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