The leaders of 25 EU countries have signed a new treaty they hope will prevent the 17 eurozone nations balance their books and alleviate the currency bloc's crippling debt crisis. The treaty was not signed by the UK or the Czech Republic.

...The Netherlands announced that its "provisional" public 2012 deficit would rise to 4.5 percent of gross domestic product from 4.1 percent forecast before, sparking a pointed rebuke from the European Commission.

"We think that the Netherlands is one country that has been very vocal when supporting the reinforcement of our fiscal surveillance rules," said European Commission economy spokesman Amadeu Altafaj.

And Spain, at the centre of the debt crisis with soaring borrowing costs that have since receded, had to explain why the country's 2011 public deficit estimate grew to 8.5 percent of GDP from a previous forecast of 6.0 percent.