New hitch to eurozone rescue plan

25 October 2011 Last updated at 10:56 ET

The French and German leaders still have not agreed how to bolster the eurozone’s bailout fund

There has been another hiccup in the eurozone’s plans to announce a final rescue deal in Brussels to try to end the turmoil in the euro area.

The Polish presidency of the EU has confirmed to the BBC that key meetings have been postponed.

The EU’s 27 finance ministers and the 17-nation Eurogroup will not now meet on Wednesday, although a full emergency heads-of-government summit will happen.

This could mean a delay to final announcements on solutions.

The hitch could stall agreement about how to enlarge the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) rescue fund and secure larger write-offs of Greek debt, although there is no confirmation of this.

However, the BBC’s Chris Morris in Brussels says the cancellation is being seen as largely procedural, since the full EU summit meant there was no need for the finance ministers to meet.

Meetings of economy and finance ministers – known as Ecofin – are traditionally held to to prepare measures for consideration by heads of state and government at a summit.

BBC business editor Robert Peston says it means Wednesday’s summit will agree broad principles of eurozone rescue, but detail of measures will then need to be finalised by subsequent finance ministers’ meetings and “presumably not published for a few days”.

The full emergency summit and dinner involving the 17 eurozone nations afterwards will still go ahead as planned.

It is, however, understood that more political discussions are to take place.

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