This time we really mean it

By The Economist online

Very few euro-area countries have observed the agreed budget-deficit limit in recent years

EUROPEAN Union leaders are heading to Brussels for a showdown with the dread beast Merkozy. The German chancellor and the French president are seeking to rewrite the compact at the heart of the euro zone to ensure that the fiscally feckless can never again threaten the currency's stability. The pair want euro members to reduce their annual budget deficits to no more than 3% of GDP, and they want each of them to write German-style "debt brakes" into their constitution to make such limits legally binding. Ne'er-do-wells will face the wrath of the European Commission.