UK officials will join talks over eurozone deal

UK officials will join talks over what should be in a eurozone fiscal pact, despite refusing to sign up to it. The UK has accepted an invitation from the European Council to join talks, alongside 17 eurozone and nine other EU states considering signing up. Last week David Cameron vetoed a treaty change involving all 27 EU states, saying it was not in UK interests. No 10 said the UK would join "technical discussions" as "equal participants". However it will not have a vote. The aim is for the new fiscal compact to be drawn up by early February. Common tax BBC Europe correspondent Chris Morris said it remained to be seen what France and Germany, among others, would try to get inserted into the text during discussions. He said Franco-German proposals which emerged before the summit were much more detailed and ambitious - on issues like a common eurozone corporate tax base and financial transactions tax - than what had actually been agreed in Brussels.