EU Leaders Push for a Deal on Fiscal Rules

Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

The mood will be gloomy when EU leaders meet today to discuss their economic priorities. As they review fiscal rules to better balance expenditure discipline and making space for billions of euros of investment needed for the greening of the economy or defense, progress is proving difficult. Meanwhile, the leaders have still not been able to convince Italy to greenlight bolstering the euro area’s rescue fund. ECB president Christine Lagarde has warned of the risk of the EU’s disunity in fueling market turbulence. So EU leaders will give a political push to seal a deal on the fiscal rules by the end of the year, according to the draft summit conclusions. That would come as the economic environment continues to deteriorate with heightened geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and Ukraine.