EU summit to get to grips with Greece rescue plans

Germany and possibly France are expected to take the lead in any aid package the EU draws up to help Greece weather its mounting debt and deficit crisis, although the structure, size, nature and any conditions attached to a deal remain unclear.

"We have to help Greece, and Europe will do it as well as the Eurogroup," Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero said on Wednesday, referring to a meeting of EU finance ministers on Monday, when details of any plan are likely to be decided.

Greece's debt problems are not officially on the agenda for Thursday's one-day summit, but they will be discussed by leaders over lunch with the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, and a statement is expected afterwards.

The meeting among the EU's 27 leaders, economic advisers, the central bank chief and other senior EU officials is expected to reach a political agreement on helping Greece, while the financial details will be hammered out at Monday's meeting of finance ministers in Brussels, a senior EU source told Reuters.

"You have to consider the sequencing of the whole political process -- the summits are there to define the political direction while the details are worked out at the Eurogroup," the source said.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the chairman of finance ministers from the 16 EU countries that use the euro single currency, held a videoconference with them to discuss rescue proposals on Wednesday and told a Luxembourg newspaper that those plans would be laid out to leaders at Thursday's summit.

Source : http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61964I20100211