European Union leaders, after tense negotiations in their summit in Brussels, made progress June 29 in their efforts to contain the European financial crisis. The results, which were much better than had been expected by market players and included important decisions, underlined the EU leaders' strong determination to work together toward a tighter union, although many problems must be solved to achieve that goal.
It also should be noted that concessions made by Germany, a strong voice for austerity measures among eurozone nations suffering from a sovereign debt crisis, helped to spur agreement at the summit. Germany made correct concessions.
The summit was held at a time when a crisis was assailing Spain and Italy, the 17-nation eurozone's No. 4 and No. 3 economies, respectively, more than two years after Greece's sovereign debt crisis surfaced in 2009.