Recommended reading :

• Summit Live Notebook (The Economist)

From the Notebook : "Written by Mr Van Rompuy, the first report (pdf (access at the bottom of the notebook page) set out four “building blocks” needed to redesign the euro zone. These were (in my shorthand):

• banking union (to stabilise the euro zone’s banking sector),
• fiscal union (including more fiscal discipline and the introduction of joint Eurobonds),
• economic union (to promote competitiveness) and
• political union (to lend greater democratic legitimacy to all this)

The latest report issued a few days ago is an “interim” version (pdf (access at the bottom of the Notebook page) of what is supposed to become a fully-fledged “roadmap” for reform, to be approved at a summit in December. It introduces two new ideas: “Fiscal capacity” (ie, a eurozone budget) and “promoting structural reforms through arrangements of a contractual nature” (ie, a written commitment by countries to enact at least some of the reforms recommended by Brussels).

More on the meaning of these terms later. For now, the latest draft of the communiqué is circulating. I have posted a copy here.

• Remarks by President Van Rompuy following the first session of the European Council

"That's why the European Council called tonight for swift progress, with the objective of agreeing on the legislative framework by 1st of January 2013. Once this is agreed, the SSM could probably be effectively operational in the course of 2013. "