EU leaders discuss easing budget rigor over migrant crisis, no deal

By Francesco Guarascio and Robert-Jan Bartunek BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders discussed whether to allow euro zone states to run higher deficits to cope with the costs of the migration crisis, EU officials said early on Thursday, but failed to find a common position. Since the beginning of the year, about 500,000 migrants have reached the European Union, fleeing war and poverty in their home countries. On Sept. 11, EU finance ministers asked the European Commission, the EU executive