進入英語學習論壇下載音頻 去聽寫專區一展身手

European Union leaders held two summits on Sunday in an effort to tackle the eurozone debt crisis.

At the morning summit, 27 European leaders discussed economic policy, including the promotion of growth and employment, and preparations for the G20 Summit.

And after that, eurozone leaders debated the financial situation and governance of the euro area.

The leaders also discussed ways to mobilize the EU's external policies to promote the growth agenda. Previous reports have shown that the EU is willing to source funds from emerging economies such as China to shake off the crisis.

On Friday and Saturday, EU finance ministers held preliminary sessions and agreed to release an 8 billion euro lifeline loan for Greece and to seek a bigger write down of Greek debt by private bondholders.

Although the details were still unknown, the ministers agreed on the framework of recapitalizing European banks and to help them withstand losses on sovereign bonds.

Reuters reported that the key outstanding issues were how to make Greece's debt burden manageable and scale up the eurozone rescue fund to shield Italy and Spain, the euro area’s third and fourth largest economies, from bond market turmoil that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal into EU-IMF bailouts.

Experts have complained that EU leaders have failed to take measures to solve the crisis, dealing with only the symptoms and not the fundamental problems.

Duncan Freeman, senior researcher with Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies, said the divisions among EU member states reflect conflicting interests regarding the debt crisis, with no government willing to accept responsibility for causing the crisis or to bear the costs for resolving it.

Questions:

1. How many European leaders attended the summit?

2. What is the value of the planned lifeline loan for Greece?

3. Which are the euro’s third and fourth largest economies?

Answers:

1. 27.

2. 8 billion euro.

3. Italy and Spain.

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）

About the broadcaster:

Emily Cheng is an editor at China Daily. She was born in Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in Media, English Literature and Politics. She has worked in the media industry since starting university and this is the third time she has settled abroad - she interned with a magazine in Hong Kong 2007 and studied at the University of Leeds in 2009.