Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi will today be meeting his European counterparts in Brussels in a two-day informal summit meeting concentrating on the economy.

Although not officially on the summit’s agenda, EU leaders are expected to come to some sort of agreement on how the euro area countries should help Greece come out of the current crisis.

France and Spain yesterday called for a special mini-summit of the leaders of the 16-member euro zone to precede the official meeting in Brussels tonight, however, some member states were lukewarm to the idea.

In view of the high deficit registered by Greece over the years and the tough measures being proposed to come into line with EU rules, the Greek government has over the past days embarked on a diplomatic campaign aimed at ensuring that the EU will step-in in case it does not manage to raise the necessary funds to cover its ballooning debts.

But member states are divided on whether this will be possible under existing EU rules and are not yet ready to put in their finances to bail out Greece.

The EU’s new economic blueprint, known as EU2020 will also be discussed by EU leaders in order to reach political agreement on its targets which include a rise in employment rates and more investment in research and development. The issue on whether these targets should be binding is still dividing member states.

EU leaders are also expected to discuss the way forward with regards to climate change following the failure on a global agreement last December in Copenhagen.

The Prime Minister is expected to be back in Malta tomorrow.