Monday, July 11, 2011

EU finance chiefs meet on Greece, minds focused by Italy

Reuters
July 11, 2011

The European Union's top finance officials hold critical talks on Greece and the worsening situation in Italy on Monday, with concern about the risk of further sovereign debt contagion acute.

Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, will meet European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet and Jean-Claude Juncker, the chairman of the Eurogroup, for talks in Brussels around midday (1000 GMT), ahead of a meeting of the 17 euro zone finance ministers later on Monday.

Van Rompuy's spokesman described the gathering, which also includes European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the EU's economic and monetary affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn, as a "coordination, not a crisis meeting," and said Italy would not be on the agenda.

However, senior EU sources said it would be impossible not to discuss the situation in Italy, the euro zone's third largest economy, following a large sell-off in Italian assets that the Italian media have dubbed "black Friday."

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