EU holding top-level discussion on economic situation

The informal summit, the first under the presidency of the Beligan, Herman Van Rompuy, began after 13:00, three hours later than the scheduled time, on account of the bad weather in Brussels and the meeting about Greece, which resulted in an agreement on the Hellenic country’s budgetary problem.

The permanent president, the Belgian Herman Van Rompuy, the president-in-turn and head of the Spanish Government, José Luis Zapatero, the presidents of the Eurogroup, Jean Claude Juncker, and the European Central Bank, Jean Claude Trichet and the president of the Commission, José Manual Durão Barroso, have been in a meeting at the headquarters of the Council since first thing this morning. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the Greek prime minister, George Papandreu, have also joined the meeting.
Van Rompuy will inform the other European leaders at the extraordinary meeting convened by the permanent president of the European Council.

The European Council president has called this extraordinary meeting to allow the twenty-seven member states to analyse their economic plans for the coming years. In calling this meeting, Mr. Van Rompuy stated that the economic crisis "has increased the sense of urgency to refocus our efforts and to enhance our co-ordination."

The EU Council president will outline some of the ideas he heard from European leaders during his round of visits to member state capitals. Mr. Van Rompuy believes that all the Union's economies are facing major challenges, given that structural growth is not sufficiently high to create employment and to maintain the European social model.
During the meeting, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Durao Barroso, will explain the specific proposals the EU executive branch expects to approve in early March.

European leaders will also analyse possible tactics for future global negotiations to deal with climate change issues, based on the outcome of last December's Copenhagen Conference. The third major issue to be discussed at the meeting is Haiti, where the EU aims to follow its immediate rescue operations with a long-term reconstruction strategy.

This summit will be the first such meeting under Mr. Van Rompuy's presidency, in full application of the Lisbon Treaty.