EU leaders give green light to tweak treaty

European Union leaders have come to a consensus that the bloc's treaty must be changed, although only in a limited fashion, in order to allow for the creation of a permanent bail-out fund for member states.

"Today we took important decisions to strengthen the euro," European Council President Herman Van Rompuy told reporters at a press conference in the early morning hours of Friday (29 October).

Initially horrified at the Franco-German demand for a wholesale re-writing of the EU ...