EU's Van Rompuy calls special euro summit March 2

(BRUSSELS) - Eurozone leaders will hold a special meeting on March 2 to discuss the currency's debt firewall and elect a new eurozone boss, with EU president Herman Van Rompuy favoured to win the job.

European Union leaders stage their next summit on March 1-2, and Van Rompuy -- already set to be confirmed in a show of hands for a new, 30-month mandate to head the Council of EU governments -- has decided to call the eurozone gathering over lunch on the second day.

"There will be a eurozone summit over lunch dedicated to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the selection of the president of the euro summit," Van Rompuy's office told the 27 EU governments on Wednesday, internal EU papers seen by AFP on Thursday showed.

EU and governmental sources confirmed Van Rompuy's plans, and his likely dual appointment as chairman of bi-annual summits of the 17-nation eurozone agreed under a new cross-border economic governance drive.

He would work in tandem with Luxembourg's head of the finance ministerial Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker.

Despite Slovakia reiterating its opposition during this week's talks, the ESM debate will focus on boosting the effective lending capacity of a new rescue fund that enters service in July, paving the way for governments to increase its 500-billion-euro effective lending capacity.

One way leaders are considering doing this is by adding in monies left over in the 440-billion European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) that was due to be phased out in the summer of 2013.

The discussion comes amid efforts to raise the resources available to the International Monetary Fund via extra loans mainly from the Group of 20 major and emerging economies.

This debate follows fears that the eurozone might not have enough firepower at its disposal should debt-crisis contagion spread once again to Italy or Spain.

The summit, which will also focus on whether to grant Serbia EU accession candidate status, will see the bloc's new inter-governmental Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance presented for signing on March 2.

Twenty-five of the 27 governments, minus Britain and the Czech Republic, have said they will implement a "golden rule" enshrined in the treaty to move quickly towards balanced budgets.

The treaty negotiations have closed, with an EU source adding that two contentious questions have been resolved by a "special agreement" among leaders behind the scenes.

The first, concerning the right for an unhappy government to take another state to the European Court of Justice if pledges are not carried through, has been resolved "so you don't see the smoking gun", or the country calling the shots, he said.

The second, which may cause ructions in Ireland, whose highest legal officer has yet to declare whether the treaty will need endorsement by a referendum, would see, this official said, the treaty regarded as "non-referendum compatible" under a "gentleman's agreement".