EU leaders set for budget summit

(Vatican Radio) European Union leaders have gathered in Brussels for a two day summit that will focus on securing a deal on the next 7 years of spending. Many leaders of the 27 nation block are likely to push for a harshly pared-down budget at the summit.

But the EU parliament insists it is ready to reject a deal that curtails spending on growth and employment.

Speaking on the eve of the two-day summit, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said that ``for the first time ever - there will be a real terms cut compared to the current budget.''

As leaders attend the summit at a time austerity in Europe, Vatican Radio’s Davide Maggiore spoke to Economist Loukas Tsoukalis from the University of Athens about what work still needs to be done to tackle the economic crisis.

He says, “There is a collection of different national problems inside the Eurozone but there is also a systemic problem of the Eurozone as a whole. I think progress has been made, there’s no doubt about it… it’s not enough, that is the problem… Europe desperately needs to adopt policies that are geared towards growth.”

The Eurozone summit continued until February 8^th. Listen