French president Nicolas Sarkozy has joined European leaders in preparations to exclude the UK from a euro deal at the Brussels summit if David Cameron seeks to veto proposals. In an effort to forestall the ruin of the single currency, leaders of the eurozone lined up against the PM and his campaign to extract a price in return for agreeing to Europe's new 'fiscal contract'

A rebellion by Finland, the Netherlands and Ireland is threatening to torpedo the Brussels summit plans – despite repeated warnings that today is the last chance to save the euro.

Hours before leaders arrived in Brussels , the Finnish parliament ruled that treaty changes proposed for the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) were “unconstitutional”. The summit was further put at risk with news that after failing stress tests, European banks need to raise €115bn (£98bn) in fresh capital to satisfy regulators. Finland’s grand committee said decisions made by the ESM – the eurozone’s permanent bail-out fund set for launch in 2012 – had to remain unanimous, and not changed to the “qualified majority” that French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel have agreed. The Finns are backed by the Netherlands, which fears proposals to withdraw veto powers from the ESM is an erosion of democracy and would make it vulnerable to funding bail-outs without recourse. Meanwhile, the Irish want to block plans for the “convergence and harmonisation” of the eurozone’s “corporate tax base”. The rebellion is a serious threat to German and French plans to sign treaty changes today along the lines laid out in their joint letter on Wednesday. In it, the leaders said they hoped all 27 European Union countries would sign.