EU countries signed a new treaty of budget discipline

25 leaders of 27 member states of the European Union signed a fiscal compact treaty today, on March 2. As europeanvoice.com writes the treaty commits their countries to tighter budget discipline. Two countries, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom, refused to sign the treaty.

 The signing follows an agreement between leaders in December to conclude an international treaty to enforce tighter deficit limits, with the UK and the Czech Republic deciding not to accept the instrument, the same source continues.

Polish Government did not want to sign the treaty but in the end Polish prime minister Donald Tusk signed the treaty.

 The treaty will enter into force once 12 of the 17 EU member states that use the euro as their currency have ratified it.

“The treaty is an important part in our global strategy to restore stability in our European finances,” Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said during the signing ceremony in the Justus Lipsius building, the headquarters of the EU Council of Ministers.

“This agreement and its binding rules…signals the irreversibility of the euro and the very important step forward in European integration,” Barroso said. “This treaty represents the very culture of financial stability that is the pre-requisite for a true economic union.”

Herman Van Rompuy, the European Council president, said the effects of the treaty “will be deep and long-lasting.”

He said the treaty will prevent “a repetition of the sovereign-debt crisis”.