Brussels: European Union leaders will make a new attempt this week to convince financial markets they can contain a debt crisis by agreeing how to tighten economic policy coordination and strengthen budget discipline.
The 27 EU member states and the executive European Commission will also set out plans to boost economic growth and create jobs at a summit on Thursday, three days after the leaders of Germany and France discuss strategy in Berlin.
A show of EU unity would help persuade markets the bloc has a common response to the worst crisis to hit the 16-country euro zone since the single currency was created 11 years ago and can prevent Greece's debt problems spreading to other countries.
"Our priority is putting order into our public finances. We need fiscal consolidation and a new financial stability culture in Europe," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday.
"There is new awareness in Europe that rules have not been respected and must now be respected. Circumventing the rules ... is putting at risk our collective economic future. We need to move in the opposite direction. We need to strengthen our rules and the way the EU runs its economy."
Failure to show solidarity could increase the nervousness on markets that has helped drive down the euro and shares globally, and increased worries that countries such as Spain and Portugal could follow Greece into debt payment trouble.
Agreement on an aid package for Greece worth 110 billion euros (Dh489 billion) and a safety net for other euro zone countries worth 500 billion euros has gone some way to calming investors' worries, at least in the short-term.
A task force under EU President Herman Van Rompuy has started work on reforms to reinforce budget rules and changes are planned to tighten financial regulations after the global economic crisis.
