国际英语新闻：EU leaders agree to tighten economic governance, but risk problems with treaty change

BRUSSELS, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- European Union (EU) leaders may have stepped into a diplomatic and legal minefield by agreeing on Friday to change the treaty which underpins their union in order to introduce new measures to bolster the stability of the euro.

Germany and France united to steamroller opposition from smaller nations to ensure the EU summit agreed to amend the Lisbon Treaty, which only came into force last December after almost a decade of painstaking negotiations and referendum votes that frequently gridlocked EU decision-making.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel argued that the relatively minor changes to the treaty required for tighter economic governance in the eurozone will not need a significant re- negotiation of the document.

However, the decision to tinker with the Lisbon Treaty may open opportunities for politicians in the 27 EU member states to unpick treaty provisions they are unhappy with, and raise the specter of complicated ratification processes, even the dreaded prospect of referendums, in some countries.

The very fact that EU leaders devoted so much time at their autumn summit to the intricacies of the bloc's internal workings underscored the concerns of those who hoped that the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty marked a hiatus in EU navel gazing, especially since issues such as the upcoming G20 summit and global climate change talks were pushed down the summit agenda.

"This (revising the treaty) should not become our hobby. We would have preferred to avoid it," said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

The need for Europe to do something to bolster its economic governance was clear to all the leaders going into the summit. The crisis in Greek finances early this year shook the eurozone to its roots, calling into question the very survival of the currency shared by 16 of the EU nations.

As the crisis spread from Greece to threaten Spain, Portugal and Ireland, the EU stepped in with a 440-billion-euro (610 billion U.S. dollars) emergency fund to shore up the finances of eurozone nations if their debts spiral out of control. This week's agreement aims to set up a permanent safety net to replace the emergency fund which is due to expire in 2013.

It also calls for changes to the rule book to make it easier to impose meaningful sanctions against nations that threaten the stability of the eurozone by running up excessive budget deficits.

Merkel was fearful that such moves might be incompatible with the current wording of the EU treaty and would risk a legal challenge at Germany's powerful constitutional court. So she battled with the head of the European Commission, Jose Manual Barroso, and leaders of smaller nations to ensure that the necessary wording is enshrined in the treaty.

The talks dragged on into the small hours of the morning, but as usual when France and Germany agreed in advance, they managed to overcome opposition from the EU's smaller states.