Emergency narrow treaty change now, political union later

Discussions on changes to EU treaties are focussing on an “emergency, narrow” alteration to the rulebook that governs the bloc, a senior UK government official has said, that will likely focus on giving the European Court of Justice the power to impose sanctions on heavily indebted states without any interference from political leaders.

Any radical rewriting of the Lisbon Treaty will only come down the road, the UK believes, because for all German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s calls on Mon...