EU Summit agrees on new fiscal pact in euro zone

EU Summit has concluded with the agreement on a new fiscal pact in the euro zone instead of the 27-nation bloc early Friday despite high expectations that this week's summit would put Europe's spiraling debt crisis at bay. The failure to agree on a treaty change to enshrine tougher budget discipline in the bloc's basic law anticipates a bumpy road toward integration among the 27-nation bloc. Diplomats said they also agreed that the bloc's future permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism would be capped at 500 billion euros, less than had been expected earlier. It was also agreed that EU countries would provide up to 200 billion euros in bilateral loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help it tackle the crisis, with 150 billion euros coming from euro countries.

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