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| Version 6 | Version 7 |
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| Europe announces 200bn-euro plan | Europe announces 200bn-euro plan |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| The European Commission has unveiled an economic recovery plan, which will total 200bn euros (£170bn), 1.5% of the EU members' GDP. | The European Commission has unveiled an economic recovery plan, which will total 200bn euros (£170bn), 1.5% of the EU members' GDP. |
| It hopes the plan will save millions of jobs across the region. | |
| European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the plan was "timely, temporary and targeted". | European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the plan was "timely, temporary and targeted". |
| The Commission expects that 170bn euros will be supplied by member states, while 30bn euros will be provided "via action taken by the European Union". | The Commission expects that 170bn euros will be supplied by member states, while 30bn euros will be provided "via action taken by the European Union". |
| Mr Barroso said it was important that EU members acted together in a period of "exceptional crisis". | Mr Barroso said it was important that EU members acted together in a period of "exceptional crisis". |
| "Measures that member states are introducing should not be identical, but they need to be coordinated," said Mr Barroso. | "Measures that member states are introducing should not be identical, but they need to be coordinated," said Mr Barroso. |
| "It's the best way to restore citizens' confidence and counter fears of a long and deep recession," he added. | "It's the best way to restore citizens' confidence and counter fears of a long and deep recession," he added. |
| The European Commission president said the bigger part of the package would be implemented in 2009 and some measures would continue into 2010. | The European Commission president said the bigger part of the package would be implemented in 2009 and some measures would continue into 2010. |
| All the announced measures are proposals which would need to be approved at the next EU summit in December. | |
| Germany's warning | |
| PLANS TO TACKLE DOWNTURN Some measures already announced by national governments Germany: package of measures set to generate 50bn euros in investment and contracts France: 19bn euro injection into key industries Spain: 40bn euro fiscal stimulus package, including 6bn euros in tax cuts Italy: 80bn stimulus package, but a large part of the money has been already receivedUK: £20bn fiscal stimulus plan, including cut in VAT | |
| Earlier France and Germany's leaders have called on the EU to ease its fiscal rules to allow nations to spend more to boost their economies. | |
| The requirement to hold public deficits below 3% of GDP in individual EU countries should be eased, France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany's Angela Merkel said. | |
| The two leaders made their comments in a joint newspaper article in France's Le Figaro and Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, saying that governments had to head off a "recessionary spiral" at home. | |
| Meanwhile, Chancellor Merkel warned EU members against getting "into the race for billions" by unveiling huge stimulus packages. | |
| "We should walk a measured path and keep to the middle ground, which is made-to-measure for the situation in Germany," she told the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament. | |
| On Tuesday France became the latest country to unveil its own multi-billion stimulus plan. |