Van Rompuy calls eurozone debt crisis meeting

Fears that Italy will be the next country affected by financial problems.

Senior EU officials will meet in Brussels today (11 July) to discuss the eurozone’s continuing sovereign-debt crisis.

Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, called the meeting over the weekend to “co-ordinate positions” on the second bail-out programme to be arranged for Greece.

The meeting comes hours before finance ministers of all 17 eurozone countries meet in Brussels to hold their own talks on the subject.

A spokesman for Van Rompuy denied that the earlier gathering was a “crisis meeting” organised to discuss mounting fears that Italy would be the next country to be gripped by financial problems.

On Friday, Italy’s stock market fell 3.5% and yields on Italian bonds soared, signifying investors’ fears that the country could be the next to be drawn into the eurozone crisis.

Markets are also nervous over reports the Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister, could be about to sack Giulio Tremonti, his finance minister.

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At the first meeting today, Van Rompuy will be joined by Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, and José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission.