This is a great compilation with a ton of quotes from key players in the political and economic scene in Europe put together by Reuters. Here are a few highlights with MUCH more behind the link:

GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL

"In the beginning of March, the treaties will be presented and can be ratified immediately. It will change the character of the ESM (permanent bailout fund) and with that we have a nucleus of a stability union..."

ON ROLE OF IMF: "On top of that, there will be a top up of resources at the IMF... If euro zone members or other EU members place bilateral credit lines with the IMF, it will be possible to lobby for support outside of Europe and increase the firepower of the IMF with regards to European help. That is important and good."

"We increased the bilateral loans to the IMF in 2009 at the London meeting of the G20 and it will happen again in a similar way here."

EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT HERMAN VAN ROMPUY ON EURO ZONE TREATY: "It is unfortunate that we missed that chance to have a full-fledged treaty change." "This treaty will be open to non-euro zone countries. Except for one, all are considering participation."

EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT JOSE MANUEL BARROSO ON DEAL AMONG EURO ZONE RATHER THAN EU 27: "Very openly, we would have preferred an agreement to take a community treaty that could bind all the 27 member states, even if what we are looking for was the reinforcement of the euro area governance and some conditions specifically for the euro area.

Consumer Sentiment rose to its highest level since June according to the index released by Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan.

The preliminary index for December stands at 67.7 versus 64.1 last month and a 65.5 consensus. The reading in June was 71.5.

The "Current Conditions" component of the survey inched up from 77.6 to 77.9, also at its highest level since June's 82.0. "Expectations were similarly at 6 month highs; 61.1 in today's report versus 55.4 last month and 64.8 in June.

1 year inflation expectations fell to 3.1% from a previous 3.2% and 5 year inflation expectations were unchanged at 2.7%.

Survey director Richard Curtin said: " "News about recent economic developments were much more positive in early December. Reports of net job growth have increased in each of the past three months, as have assessments of current conditions in the economy."

Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.):
“This legislation is a detailed roadmap to change the unsustainable course we’re on in which the American taxpayers have been bailing out the mortgage industry to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. My bill will shut down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through an orderly transition, and it will repay the taxpayers,” said Isakson. “I invite my colleagues in Congress, both Democrat and Republican, to move this bill forward to strengthen our nation’s housing finance system and our nation’s economy.”
Specifically, Isakson’s bill:

• Shuts down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
• Creates a new transitional program to guarantee securitizations of high-quality mortgages for a 10-year period after which the new operation shall be privatized
• Creates a new, self-funding catastrophic fund to protect taxpayers from having to bail out another housing collapse during the 10-year transition period before privatization
• Pays back the American taxpayer for the cost of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout
• Shuts down the new transitional program completely within 10 years and turns it over fully to the private sector

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that total October exports of $179.2 billion and imports of $222.6 billion resulted in a goods and services deficit of $43.5 billion, down from $44.2 billion in September, revised. October exports were $1.5 billion less than September exports of $180.6 billion. October imports were $2.2 billion less than September imports of $224.8 billion.

In October, the goods deficit decreased $0.7 billion from September to $58.8 billion, and the services surplus was virtually unchanged at $15.3 billion. Exports of goods decreased $1.5 billion to $127.8 billion, and imports of goods decreased $2.2 billion to $186.6 billion. Exports of services were virtually unchanged at $51.4 billion, and imports of services increased $0.1 billion to $36.1 billion.

The goods and services deficit increased $4.0 billion from October 2010 to October 2011. Exports were up $19.7 billion, or 12.3 percent, and imports were up $23.7 billion, or 11.9 percent.

There are more newswires out of the EU than you can shake a stick at this morning. In what has to be one of the most anticlimactic resolutions to a hotly-anticipated event, we begin the domestic session with glut of headlines that seem to be some sort of CONCLUSION to the EU Summit.

As it turns out, markets unwittingly already spent much of the week reacting to today's summit decisions through the course of the week based on various speculation and credible "leaks." Apparently, markets did a good job of this despite the low volumes as trading levels are little changed from yesterday afternoon. 10yr yields moved as high as the 2.02's overnight, but are back to 1.99 currently. MBS are unchanged at 102-10.

The most striking thing about these levels is that they're very much INSIDE yesterday's trading range--not at all the sort of thing one would expect for all the build-up over the EU summit. This adds to the impression that markets traded this event to a large extent yesterday, as that was basically the week's most directional move. But the day is young and a move outside yesterday's range could still be in the cards by the time the multitude of details from the Summit are considered.

International Trade and Consumer Sentiment are the only two domestic releases of the day. The former just reported roughly in line with consensus ($43.47 bln vs $43.50 bln forecast). Sentiment is forecast at 65.5, and scheduled for 955am.

Extremely volatile trade on European stock and currency markets on Friday reflected doubts about the outcome of a crunch EU summit after leaders agreed stricter budget rules but made little other progress in the first round of meetings overnight.

After 10 hours of talks among the EU's 27 member nations, all 17 euro zone countries and six others that aspire to join the group resolved to negotiate a new agreement alongside the EU treaty, with a tougher deficit and debt regime to insulate the euro zone against the debt crisis.

At the heart of markets' concerns are worries that there is no sign of a deal that would allow the ECB to intervene more heavily to quell the crisis. The bank's President Mario Draghi knocked back talk of a number of possible mechanisms for allowing it or its euro zone national central banks to do so at the ECB's monthly post-rate decision news conference on Thursday.