EU leaders scrape treaty deal at 11th hour

After a marathon round of talks, the EU has finally agreed the outline of a new treaty for the bloc with formal intergovernmental negotiations to start on 23 July.

At around 05:00 local time on Saturday morning - following a full day and a half of tense discussion - a triumphant Angela Merkel, German chancellor, announced to press that a deal had been struck and that Europe would be able to move out the "reflection" phase it has been in since the draft EU constitution was rejected two y...