Yesterday's summit, heavily dominated by the Copenhagen talks on climate change, gave broad approval to a year's worth of internal wrangling on financial regulation.
Britain and France stole the summit's thunder as both committed to levies on pay to make banks think twice about a bonus culture believed to have spurred risky investments in the financial sector.
The UK Treasury announced the levy on Wednesday (9 December) in the government's latest budget plan. The plan is to put a 50% tax on City bonuses over £25,000.
A French government official confirmed France would be imposing a similar levy as Britain's first move soothes French fears over Paris' competitiveness.
"This tax will encourage banks to consider their capital position and to make appropriate risk adjustments when settling the level of bonus payments above £25,000," Gordon Brown wrote in a letter to leaders before the summit opened on Thursday (10 December).
Early conclusions from the summit reveal that EU leaders are largely happy with draft laws regulating financial supervision, alternative investment funds (AIFM), capital requirements at banks, bonuses and derivatives.
The leaders are now passing the ball to the European Parliament to approve a set of three EU financial watchdogs so that "the new system can become operational during the course of 2010".
Conflict in 2010 cannot be excluded because all of the above policies are currently being scrutinised by MEPs and some could be sent back to the European Commission for redrafting.
MEPs have warned they will continue to seek changes to the controversial Alternative Investment Funds and Managers Directive (AIFMD) and the EU's new supervisory structures, criticising the lack of teeth in both proposals (EurActiv 09/11/09).
Discussions on financial regulation stalled in October after Britain stopped short of approving the watchdogs (EurActiv 21/10/09).
After tense negotiations, finance ministers succeeded in breaking a deadlock between Britain and other member states on three new watchdogs to supervise Europe's financial sector.
In contrast, a separate European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), which would exert a kind of "moral pressure" on financial institutions, won broad approval at the October summit.
Leaders yesterday also approved amendments made to an EU law on capital requirements, asking banks to hold more capital and commit to more transparent remuneration policies.
An amendment in July to the so-called Capital Requirements Directive stated that banks would be required to build sizeable reserves of capital in good times so that they can act as a buffer during downturns.
