Europe cancels finance minister meeting
Eurozone leaders have cancelled a meeting of the region’s finance ministers scheduled for tomorrow amid rising tensions as no solution for the sovereign debt crisis has been found.
The EcoFin meeting of ministers from the 27 EU member states was due to take place before a longer heads of state meeting that will continue as normal. The EcoFin meeting has apparently been postponed until next week.
Markets read the news as a sign the Eurozone leaders were less likely to reach agreement on the crisis engulfing the region, but official sources played down the eleventh-hour cancellation.
Sources said the meeting was pulled because the details of issues to be discussed at the meeting have not been finalised.
The spokesman for European Council president Herman Van Rompuy said finance officials would still meet ahead of the summit, while Ecofin may also meet in the coming days to work on the details of whatever Eurozone leaders agree on Wednesday night.
“Ministers of finance may meet in the coming days to fine-tune decisions that will be taken tomorrow,” said the spokesman. “There is no new summit planned.”
EU leaders will meet tomorrow to finalise details of a plan to tackle the debt crisis, including proposals for steeper losses for owners of Greek bonds, a recapitalisation of European banks and extending the firepower of the €440bn European Financial Stability Facility.