12 December 2008
European Union leaders have reached agreement on a 200 billion euro economic stimulus plan designed to dig the bloc out of recession, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Thursday.
"We are all in agreement," Berlusconi said after dinner with his EU counterparts on the first day of a two-day summit meeting in Brussels.
Asked if the deal was based on the original goal of 1.5 percent of EU gross domestic product (GDP), worth 200 billion euros (260 billion dollars), he replied simply: "Yes."
"We have supported the banks, we have taken initiatives to support business, now everything depends on how the citizens act," he added of the package aimed in part at regenerating spending.
EU heads of state and government meeting in the Belgian capital were asked to agree on the package, proposed by the European Commission, to ramp up public investment across Europe and allow for some taxes to be eased through a mixture of national and European initiatives.
Source: uk.news.yahoo.com