Three of Belgium's biggest unions are expected to bring Brussels to a standstill on Monday and complicate the arrival of EU leaders for a summit that is their first attempt this year to resolve the single currency and sovereign debt crisis.

Air travel will be seriously disrupted, public transport halted, and roads blocked in the 24-hour strike called to protest against the austerity packages raining down on the EU, with the new Belgian government seeking to lower its debt by raising taxes, slashing benefits and laying off workers.

The issues behind the strike are the same as those on the agenda for the summit. Greece's desperate plight hovers over the meeting, although formally there is no mention of Greece on the agenda or in the statements drafted for the meeting.

Instead the leaders of the 27 governments will discuss how to underpin an EU recovery – of which there is absolutely no sign – with "smart growth" policies, which would entail medium-term structural reforms, cutting labour costs, reshaping labour markets and redirecting surplus EU budget funds towards the eurozone periphery, where the debt crisis is hitting hardest.

The leaders are also to finalise two new treaties directly dealing with the euro crisis.

The first is the German-led "fiscal compact" which supersedes the currency's rulebook, the stability pact, by enshrining debt and deficit ceilings across the eurozone, giving Brussels greater powers to enforce compliance and penalise offenders, and making the fines imposed on delinquents more automatic and less open to political abuse.

The second treaty sets up the eurozone's new permanent bailout fund, the European stability mechanism (ESM), which is to come into operation a year earlier than planned in July with a kitty of €500bn (£420bn). The two treaties are explicitly linked, at Berlin's insistence. From March next year, a country in need will not be able to tap the bailout fund unless it has signed up to the other treaty and the stiff new fiscal and budgetary rules.

Much remains to be resolved on the new measures and the two treaties may not be concluded on Monday. "Political agreement" among the leaders should be reached, but contentious points may not be settled for several weeks.

Britain has no part in the fiscal compact, and the Czech Republic and Sweden – also outside the euro – may not take part, leaving 24 countries to sign up. As the biggest non-euro country hoping to sign the pact, Poland is demanding a seat at the table in the system of eurozone summits that is part of the new regime, while France is leading the resistance.

On the ESM treaty, setting up an incipient European monetary fund, the key issue is whether its €500bn firewall is enough to fend off the bond markets. Germany, as the key player, is resisting calls from Christine Lagarde, the IMF chief, for a bigger fund. The Americans, British, Italians and French support her. On Sunday, the Austrian chancellor, Werner Faymann, joined the chorus calling for the fund to be increased.

The likelihood is that it will be boosted to around €750bn by adding the money from the current temporary bailout fund, but not for a few months, as Berlin is determined to get the stringent new euro rulebook established first.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is to have a separate meeting ahead of the summit with the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the Italian prime minister, Mario Monti.

The new Italian leader has quickly emerged as the most formidable challenger to Merkel's hard line in the eurozone. He will argue that a bigger bailout fund is needed to bring down the cost of Italian borrowing, which would help to shore up the euro.

Although Greece is not formally slated for discussion, EU policymakers are increasingly pessimistic that Athens can do enough to retrieve a situation permanently teetering on the brink of national insolvency.

While Greece and its private creditors appear to be close to clinching a debt-swap deal that would shave €100bn off the national debt and leave the banks nursing 60% losses on their loans, the troika of officials from the European commission, European Central Bank and IMF have told eurozone governments that Greece is not doing enough to qualify for the second €130bn bailout agreed last October.

The troika report delivered last week demanded a further €2bn in budget reductions, 150,000 public sector job cuts by 2015 and major reforms of the civil service, judiciary, military, health and education systems.

No final decisions on Greece are expected.

Instead, the summit is likely to conclude with ringing calls for "smart growth" policies and jobs creation in an attempt to placate the markets, public opinion and Belgian trade unions, without pledging any of the means to do so.