万花筒 2012-02-04&02-06 欧盟25国同意签署新财政巩固协议

 All but two of the European Union's 27 members have signed up to a new treaty on tighter fiscal¹ rules.

Britain's refusal to sign was flagged well in advance.

"The key point for me here is what is in our national interest and our national interest is that these countries get on and sort out the mess that is the euro."On the other hand,the Czech Republic's opposition² to the deal that threatens sanctions for breaches³ of EU budget deficit⁴ limits is more puzzling for French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

"We have taken note of that decision, which is some kind of clarification, although I'm not sufficiently⁵ familiar with the ins and outs of what's going on in Prague to be able to understand why what was acceptable in December is no longer acceptable now."The treaty, which demands the incorporation⁶ of tighter budget rules into each nation's legislation, is being welcomed by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.

"It is the first step towards a fiscal union. It certainly will strengthen confidence in the euro area."The summit in Brussels also agreed to bring in a 500-billion-euro European Stability Mechanism⁷ to back heavily-indebted countries a year earlier than planned.

But differences over austerity limits and Greece's unfinished debt restructuring talks wrecked⁸ hopes for a more upbeat message that Europe's getting to grips with its debt crisis.

Paul Chapman, Reuters.

1 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

2 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

3 breaches   

破坏( breach的名词复数 )； 破裂； 缺口； 违背

参考例句：

• He imposed heavy penalties for breaches of oath or pledges. 他对违反誓言和保证的行为给予严厉的惩罚。
• This renders all breaches of morality before marriage very uncommon. 这样一来，婚前败坏道德的事就少见了。

4 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

5 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

6 incorporation   

n.设立，合并，法人组织

参考例句：

• The incorporation of air bubbles in the glass spoiled it.玻璃含有气泡，使它质量降低。
• The company will be retooled after the incorporation.合并之后的公司要进行重组。

7 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

8 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞