Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Leaders of 27 European Union countries were holed up in a 16th-century castle on the Belgian-Netherlands border Thursday for an emergency brainstorming session on ways to boost the bloc's weak economy, slash red tape and compete with the United States and China for investment.
Prospects for a breakthrough were not high due to major differences over how far and fast to proceed, with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pushing for the EU to step on the gas to catch up with rivals that are forging ahead.
Former European Central Bank president and Financial Stability Board chair Mario Draghi pitched a compromise solution to leaders that calls for greater use of enhanced cooperation, where states that are willing to make the changes necessary "move faster" with countries that disagree being allowed to carry on as they were and exempted from the costs.
An official at the summit at Alden Biesen castle said Draghi had told leaders they should consider the benefits of the mechanism, a legal provision protected under the Lisbon Treaty, to speed up progress in tackling the most critical issues needed to turn around the economy.
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