Brussels - Europe's leaders are to sign a long-crafted treaty designed to end years of deficits and debt at a two-day summit starting Thursday, but efforts to reinforce a financial firewall remained stuck.
The European Union meeting, to start at 17:00 GMT on Thursday, suffered a substantial last-minute cut when a eurozone summit planned for Friday to discuss strengthening the bloc's emergency resources was cancelled.
At the summit, heads of state and government from the 27 EU members are to elect Herman Van Rompuy as president of the EU Council of governments for a second 30-month term, and also give the former Belgian premier the job of chairing biannual eurozone summits.
But Spain, off course to meet deficit reduction targets set down by the EU executive commission, could cause problems, with Madrid said to be seeking a later deadline than originally agreed with Brussels.
Meanwhile, eurozone finance ministers will kick off the series with a meeting to check whether Greece has met a list of conditions enabling currency partners to open the taps on a €237bn bailout approved last week.
The summit's official goal - apart from a decision on whether to give Serbia hopes for an EU future - is to agree on measures to kickstart growth.
An EU Commission forecast released this week said the eurozone would suffer its second recession in three years.
But as with the financial firewall, there appeared to be almost no real money being pumped into that endeavour.
"Germany is not ready," a eurozone government source told AFP in reference to an increase in emergency funding that might be needed if Spain, Italy or others were sucked into the Greek debt vortex.
"The timing isn't yet right" for Chancellor Angela Merkel to commit more German cash guarantees for struggling partners in a 13-year-old currency union economists say is riven with flaws.
At talks among the Group of 20 in Mexico at the weekend, the major world economies said the eurozone must establish a stronger financial firewall before they would contribute more money to International Monetary Fund (IMF) resources.
Eurozone leaders are considering giving the debt-wracked 17-nation zone a total fund of €750bn.
And one source said a special eurozone summit would probably be needed "before March ends".
In conclusions seen by AFP ahead of their planned adoption, EU leaders "encouraged G20 finance ministers to continue their work with a view to reaching agreement on an increase in the IMF's resources at their next meeting in April".
But the IMF has other problems to consider, Egypt being just one, and its resources would not suffice if countries the size of Italy or Spain needed a lifeline.
Europeans are expected to stress the IMF's "systemic responsibilities", a sign that Europe wants the rest of the world to work with the eurozone and other EU states.
Eurozone countries have already promised €150bn to the IMF, but countries outside the zone, including Britain, China, Japan and the United States, insisted at the G20 meeting that the eurozone contribute more.
Senior IMF figures have tentatively scheduled March 13 for their next talks on the issue.
By then, pressure is bound to rise on EU partners to give recession-hit Spain, where half of the youth are jobless, more leeway on delivering public budget cuts.
EU officials have insisted that no special dispensation be given to Madrid.
Demands to backtrack there could be one of the first challenges Van Rompuy faces once confirmed as EU and eurozone negotiator supreme.
His confirmation is part of a treaty on fiscal stability that enshrines a "golden rule" demanding balanced budgets.
Twenty-five EU signatories - with the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom remaining out - are also to sign a separate agreement ensuring that any government that hauls a partner before the European Court of Justice may remain anonymous.