Europe is a destiny we will never embrace easily. But it is an absolutely essential part of our nation remaining a world power politically and economically. It would be a monumental error of statesmanship to turn our back on it and fall away from a crucial position of power and influence in the 21st century. Let us be very clear too about this 'renegotiating the terms of membership' line. This is the refuge of those who want to leave but want to persuade people that really it's just an adjustment of our relationship. Then in the course of 'the adjustment' when the going gets very rough, as it will, they will then say 'well it's a pity but now it seems adjustment is not enough'. Our country faces a real and present danger by edging towards exit. 15.43 Our man in Brussels, Bruno Waterfield, is at the press conference, and doesn't seem convinced by the document: 15.38 The document sets out short, medium and long term goals. Here are the key points: Within 6 to 18 months - Strive for an agreement on a single supervisory mechanism for banks by the end of the year. 18 months to 5 years - A dedicated fiscal capacity for the euro area Beyond 5 years - An autonomous euro area budget 15.33 The EC has just released a blueprint for a "deep and genuine economic and monetary union" on its website. José Manuel Barroso, President of the EC, is also holding a press conference to explain it. He said in a statement: We need a deep and genuine economic and monetary union in order to overcome the crisis of confidence that is hurting our economies and our citizens' livelihoods. We must give tangible proof of the willingness of Europeans to stick together and move forward decisively to strengthen the architecture in the financial, fiscal, economic and political domains that underpins the stability of the euro and our union as a whole. 15.08 Our reporter in Madrid, Fiona Govan, points out that Bankia's restructuring will cut 6,000 jobs: The bank said it intended to return to profit in 2013, but warned that it expected to report a loss of €19bn this year. Bankia will also close 1,100 branches as part of the restructuring. 14.19 Angela Merkel has said this afternoon that she's "very optimistic" that the eurozone crisis will be solved in her lifetime. That'd be more reassuring if she wasn't just 58, and the avearge life expectancy in Germany wasn't as high as 80. 13.55 The ECB wants a bank executioner to be given a permanent role shutting down weak lenders that survive largely on central bank funding, officials familiar with the issue have told Reuters. The task of cleaning up the sector has fallen by default to Joaquin Almunia, the European commissioner for competition issues, who ordered a restructuring of Spanish banks today. Now, some officials at the ECB are examining how Almunia's job could be enhanced to give him a permanent and more powerful role in winding up banks. 12.58 Open Europe has released a statement on the Greek debt deal. As others have already said, it doesn't look as good once you start to poke into the details: For all the talk and all the figures flying around there is still only one that really matters - 124% debt to GDP ratio in 2020, clearly this is not sustainable. Further measures will be needed and the ad hoc nature of this deal, particularly the way it skirts the big decisions, suggests that fears over a "Grexit" will return as soon as Greece begins missing its targets once again. The statement includes a very interesting chart showing who owns Greek debt. As we know, part of the deal includes a bond buyback. Because of Greece's troubles, bonds are trading for around 35 cents on the euro - purely because there's a risk of default. The idea is that Greece would buy back this debt and cancel it, reducing its debt burden on the cheap and avoiding default. That's all well and good, but obviously there will be losses for investors who paid all 100 cents on the euro to buy them initially. 12.41 A quick video for you now of the EC press conference on the Spanish bank restructuring. One for the Spanish speakers among you... 11.49 Time for an update on the markets as we near midday. Kathleen Brooks, research director at Forex.com, gives us her take - it's all about the US now: We mentioned yesterday that now that Greece has its bailout money and Spain is fully funded for this year the focus could shift to the US and the fiscal cliff. Indeed it did. After some positive comments in recent weeks that Republicans and Democrats may compromise and reach a deal in good time, we received some negative headlines from Capitol Hill yesterday. US Senate Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said that little progress has been made on reaching a deal. This triggered a sell off in NYC hours, which, in the absence of other market drivers, continues to sour sentiment during the London session. In truth, a deep market sell-off could push both sides to reach a compromise sooner rather than later. We have a little over a month before the US goes over the cliff edge, so expect headline risk to ramp up over the coming weeks. The FTSE 100 is off 0.25pc, the DAX has dropped 0.17pc and the CAC is also 0.29pc lower. Spain's IBEX is down 0.88pc. 11.39 More details on Bankia's restructuring: 39pc of branches will close, and 28pc of staff will face redundancy over the next three years. Shareholders will see dividends frozen until 2014. 11.26 Reuters reports that Greece has said it wants the debt buyback to be voluntary, but that the price has not yet been decided. It claims that Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley have been hired to oversee it. 11.20 The number of people classed as underemployed has jumped by 1m to 3m since the start of the credit crunch in 2008 to 3m, with 1 in 10 workers wanting to work more. 11.06 Reuters claims to have seen a document which suggests eurozone central banks may roll over Greek debt and help trim the necessary rescue package by €2bn by 2016.