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Barroso also presented the following key points:
An agreement also emerged that the ESM should not, as was initially foreseen, be subject to the rule of unanimity. Decisions will now be taken by reinforced qualified majority. Here again, the Commission has proposed this already for the EFSF, but without success.
More immediately, the leveraging of the EFSF will be deployed very rapidly, with the ECB acting as its agent in the EFSF operations.
The Spring European Council in March will discuss how further to deepen fiscal integration of the euro area on the basis of a report by the President of the European Council, together with the President of the Commission and the President of the Eurogroup.
The Commission's Green Paper on European Stability Bonds of 23 November will feed into this debate. This is very controversial for some governments. Nevertheless, the Commission was encouraged to see support for its assessment that stability bonds can give an important contribution in the future to completing a fiscal stability union and creating a stronger liquid bonds market in Europe.