09 December 2011 | New Plan Aims to End European Debt Crisis EU heads of state on Friday at a summit in Brussels AP (You can download an MP3 of this story at ) This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Most members of the European Union have agreed to a deal to increase central control over the budgets of individual governments. The plan to increase economic ties was announced Friday at a meeting of European leaders in the Belgian capital, Brussels. European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi praised the agreement. MARIO DRAGHI: "It's a very good outcome for the euro. | 09 December 2011 New Plan Aims to End European Debt Crisis EU heads of state on Friday at a summit in Brussels You can download an MP3 of this story at This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Most members of the European Union have agreed to a deal to increase central control over the budgets of individual governments. The plan to increase economic ties was announced Friday at a meeting of European leaders in the Belgian capital Brussels. European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi praised the agreement. MARIO DRAGHI It s a very good outcome for the euro area very good. It s quite close to a good fiscal compact and certainly it s going to be a basis for a much more disciplined economic policy for euro-area members and certainly it s going to be helpful in the present situation. All seventeen countries that share the euro currency agreed to the deal. All together twenty-three of the twenty-seven European Union nations agreed to it. EU president Herman van Rumpoy said three more members are considering it. That would leave Britain as the only country against the plan. HERMAN VON RUMPOY Our preference went to a full-fledged treaty change with the twenty-seven changing the treaties of the European Union. We tried it but because there was not a unanimous decision we have to take another decision. 2 The plan is an effort to solve the debt problems that have threatened the euro and driven Europe into an economic crisis. Britain is the strongest of the ten non-euro countries. Prime Minister David Cameron defended his decision to reject the deal. DAVID CAMERON I m glad we re not in the euro. And so I think the idea of Europe being more of a network - where you choose the organizations you join you choose those organizations you don t join -- is actually a way that Britain can get what we want and what we need in Europe. Stock prices and the value of the euro rose Friday after the agreement. But economists were divided in their .
