BRUSSELS, February 19 (RIA Novosti) -- The Polish
prime minister has invited the leaders of central and eastern
EU states to discuss the region's economic challenges ahead of
a March 1 EU-wide summit, European Voice said on Thursday.
The paper said Donald Tusk had also invited Jose Manuel
Barroso, the president of the European Commission, to join the
leaders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania,
Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in Brussels on the
morning of the summit. The main EU summit is to begin at
lunchtime.
"The idea would be to make sure that the EU's response to
the crisis is an answer for the EU27, and not just for some
member states," Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, Poland's minister for
Europe, told European Voice. "The particular situation of these
countries, the new member states, must be taken into account."
Andrius Kubilius, the prime minister of Lithuania, said he
hoped EU leaders would formulate a common approach to the
problems caused by the global financial crisis.
"What is needed is more co-ordination, a European approach
to solving the situation in central and eastern Europe, both in
countries which are members of the EU and outside the EU -
Ukraine, for instance," he told European Voice.
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