The summit of European leaders in Brussels, scheduled to take place between December 8th and December 9th, whose main topic is the French-German proposal of a fiscal union intended to set tighter rules for the national budgets, is causes contrasting reactions among the EU member states, as well as among foreign actors.
The French and the Americans are acting optimistic. On Tuesday night, US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner, expressed his support for the French-German plan to tackle the crisis, after the common conference of Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel. This support also came as a ratings firm Standard & Poor's announced this week that it would place on watch with a negative outlook the long term credit ratings of 15 Eurozone member countries.
French Finance minister, Francois Baroin, said that France's position was unyielding, and that it would not intend to leave the negotiation table without achieving a strong agreement.
"Neither Nicolas Sarkozy, nor Angela Merkel will leave the negotiations table for this summit until a strong agreement is met", said Baroin.
On the other hand, Berlin is pessimistic about the summit and its possible achievements, because some governments still don't understand the gravity of the situation, thus preventing such an agreement.
"Judging on several conversations which took place over the past few days, that many of the protagonists have not yet realized how serious the situation is", a German official said for Reuters, under the protection of anonymousness.
On the other hand, Great Britain, through Prime Minister David Cameron, said that, even though it realizes the importance of saving the unified currency, it will not sign a new treaty, and it will use its right to veto against any plan that would not defend British interests.
British minister of Justice, Ken Clarke, said that, even t