It appears as though the European Union has a new treaty in the wake of a string of fiscal troubles that were mainly the result of faltering economies in countries like Spain, Greece and Italy.  But the agreement did not come without controversy.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron walked away from the treaty, refusing to sign his country on to a treaty he said “wasn’t in British interests.”

French President Nicholas Sarkozy hit back at Cameron saying, “David Cameron requested something we all considered unacceptable, a protocol in the treaty allowing the U.K. to be exempted for a certain number of financial regulations.”

The treaty would require the signatories to have a balanced budget, “calculated as an annual "structural" deficit of no greater than 0.5 percent of gross domestic product. During economic slumps, when tax receipts fall and spending may rise to stimulate growth, governments will be allowed to temporarily run slightly higher deficits, of up to 3 percent,” according to CBS News.  Under the deal, the European Commission would be able to request that national budgets be revised.

All 17 eurozone countries using the euro have agreed to the deal and nine of the remaining 10 non-euro countries are considering it, with the exception of the UK.  Sweden’s prime minister told the Associated Press that his country’s participation was not guaranteed.

“It would be very odd signing up to a treaty ... as if we were a eurozone country. And that was never the aim," he said. "If the eurozone has problems these become also Swedish problems.”

The deal was met with approval from the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.  The announcement led to mild gains in the European market on Friday.