The European Parliament and member states reached an agreement early Saturday (10 February) on reforms to EU budgetary rules aimed at boosting investment while keeping spending under control. The text modernises the current rules, known as the Stability and Growth Pact, created in the late 1990s, which limit countries’ debt to 60% of gross domestic product and public deficits to three percent. “Deal!,” the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU said on social media platform X after 16 hours of talks. The European Union spent two years making an intensive effort to develop reforms supported by the more frugal ... (full story)