The sovereign debt crisis which has been raging over the past few months in many States in Europe and around the world is now having a direct impact on the Regions: in early December, Standard and Poor’s announced that it intended to lower the rating of the Ile-de-France region, with two German Länder (Saxony and Bavaria) and the Brussels-Capital region also being under threat. To cope with this crisis, the leaders of the European States, particularly those in the eurozone, decided at the Summit on 9 December 2011 that it was time to set up a stricter framework for the sake of bolstering fiscal and budgetary discipline within the Member States. A draft Treaty was drawn up, to be discussed by the Heads of State and of Government at their exceptional Summit on 30 January. What role can and must the Regions play in this new European economic governance?

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