An inner circle of European leaders were meeting ahead of a crucial EU summit in Brussels Thursday to find a "European solution" to the Greek budget crisis that risks spreading to other euro area countries, diplomatic sources said, DPA reported.
Greece's ballooning deficit, set to reach 12.7 per cent of gross domestic product in 2009 - over three times the 3 per cent limit allowed in the EU - fuelled market speculation that the country could default, threatening the stability of the eurozone.
A diplomat from the Spanish presidency of the EU said Spain's Prime mMnister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, met Thursday morning with EU Council president Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet and Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, leader of the Eurogroup countries.
"Zapatero thinks that to a solution of the Greek crisis needs to be a European crisis," the diplomat said, adding that "a balance needs to be struck between the rigour that Greece is expected to adopt in balancing its books and the solidarity EU countries need to display towards it."
He did not elaborate on the ideas being discussed, but said the commission - the EU's executive - was expected to play "a coordination and guiding role" over the aid plan for Greece.
The same source indicated that a second meeting followed between Van Rompuy, the German chancellor Angela Merkel, the French president Nicolas Sarkozy and the Greek prime minister Georges Papandreou.
France and Germany, the EU's major powers, are expected to play a leading role in any aid package for Greece.
The diplomat said he expected Thursday's informal EU summit to only produce "clear messages", while details of the expected bail-out plan would be worked out in the following days.
"Everything will happen between today and Tuesday, when the ECOFIN (EU financial ministers) will meet," he predicted.
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