French, Spanish leaders meet on economic crisis

[FarCenter]

Friday 10 October 2008

PARIS - Spain asked France on Friday to organise an emergency meeting of European leaders to discuss concerted action over the financial crisis that has sent markets into a tailspin and could unleash a global recession.

EU heads of state and government are due to hold a regular summit in Brussels next week, but the speed and ferocity of the market meltdown has piled pressure on leaders to react faster.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said that EU leaders would meet in Paris on Sunday, adding that it might be followed shortly afterwards by a summit of Group of Eight industrialised nations.

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating six-month EU presidency, called together the heads of Germany, Italy and Britain last weekend, but their talks failed to produce any concrete results or halt the market slump.

Spain was unhappy not to have been invited last Sunday and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told Sarkozy on Friday it was time for a new meeting, this time of the 15 countries that have adopted the euro currency.

"Jose Luis Zapatero made a proposal for a meeting of the Eurogroup. It is a proposal which is interesting, pertinent and useful. I need to speak with a few people before giving a definitive response," Sarkozy told reporters.

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Britain has since suggested setting up a fund to guarantee inter-bank lending in Europe, which has largely ground to halt because of a lack of confidence between banks, depriving companies of desperately needed funding.

This idea has failed so far to find any buyers.

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http://www.france24.com/en/20081010-french-spanish-leaders-meet-economic-crisis-france-spain-emergency-meeting