EU summit to take only minor steps on debt crisis

"The competitiveness pact as it stands is largely meaningless, it's beside the point right now," said Simon Tilford, chief economist of the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think-tank. "The immediate issue is debt restructuring and bank recapitalisation and they're not dealing with that. The wiggle room, the political room for manoeuvre on the part of the Germans, is worryingly limited," said Tilford. "They are going to have to deliver something (on March 24-25) because the market reaction otherwise could be pretty adverse, but I fear that very little is going to be delivered. Portugal will be forced into a bailout and will subsequently, like Ireland and Greece, be forced to restructure its debt," said Tilford. "Portugal looks very vulnerable."