EU leaders pledge to fight crisis

BRUSSELS, May 21 (UPI) -- European Union finance ministers pledged to cooperate more closely to tackle the economic and finance crisis threatening the stability of the continent.

"I could feel a sense of urgency and a spirit of cooperation around the table," Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, said after a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels Friday. "Everyone shares the will to go forward."

Van Van Rompuy said all 27 member states agreed on four main objectives: To push for greater budgetary discipline; to find ways to reduce the divergences in competitiveness between member states; to come up with an effective crisis management mechanism; and to strengthen economic governance to be able to act quicker and in a more coordinated and efficient manner to future crises.

The objectives are to be included in a formal agreement drafted in the coming weeks.

The meeting comes after parliamentarians in Germany, Europe's largest economy, on Friday green-lighted a measure that allows the country to contribute massively to an unprecedented $1 trillion loan package for economically troubled eurozone members.

Germany is to guarantee loans of up to $184 billion after the Bundestag voted 319 to 73 in favor of the package, which had sparked controversial debates in Germany. The major opposition lawmakers all abstained, with a far-left party voting against it. The government had lobbied for the measure, saying it was in Germany's best interest to defend the euro, the common currency for 16 EU member states.

The overall aid package was drafted by leaders from the EU and the International Monetary Fund earlier this month. It is aimed at injecting stability into a market that has has been troubled by a near-default of Greece, a weakening euro and steeply declining stock markets.

Officials in Europe fear that the Greek crisis could infect similarly indebted countries like Portugal, Spain, Ireland and maybe even Italy.

The southern European economies not only suffer from high deficits but also from an inherent structural economic weakness compared to northern countries.

Greece has been forced to adopt stringent austerity measures that include rising taxes, cutting pensions and freezing salaries in order to unlock money from a personalized $150 billion rescue fund. The austerity measures sparked social unrest in Greece.