EU Leaders Forge Emergency Debt Deal

Banks taking 50% haircut on Greek debt
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 26, 2011 10:33 PM CDT
Updated Oct 27, 2011 4:15 AM CDT
EU Leaders Forge Emergency Debt Deal
The emergency summit in Brussels lasted into the early hours of Thursday morning.   (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

European Union leaders have hammered out a deal they say will help resolve the eurozone's debt crisis. After talking late into the night, a "three-pronged deal" was reached that will see banks taking a 50% loss on Greek debt, AP reports. The eurozone and the International Monetary Fund will also give Greece another $140 billion in rescue loans, and the eurozone's bailout fund will be boosted to $1.4 trillion to help protect other flailing EU economies like Italy and Spain.

"These are exceptional measures for exceptional times. Europe must never find itself in this situation again," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said after the marathon summit. The eurozone crisis had threatened to push the EU—and much of the developed world—back into recession. "Because of the complexity of the issues at stake, it took us a full night, but the results will be a source of huge relief worldwide," Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters. (More eurozone stories.)

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