European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has announced an unscheduled summit for February 11 to deal with economic recovery and the EU's plan to regenerate the economy by 2020.

The extraordinary summit announced on Monday, barely a week since Mr Van Rompuy formally occupied the new full-time post, raised eyebrows in Madrid, which has just taken over the six-month rotating EU presidency.

The announcement was made before next Friday's formal launch of the Spanish term when a meeting will be held in Madrid between the European Commission, the Spanish government and Mr Van Rompuy.

International media reports said Mr Van Rompuy had apparently not even consulted the Spanish presidency on this announcement.

Spain had already said Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero would make way for Mr Van Rompoy to act as he deems fit in his new role. However, this first incident has led to some tension between Brussels and Madrid.

On his part, Mr Van Rompoy said the extraordinary summit would serve to discuss an exit strategy in response to the continuing economic signals that the recession in the EU would be soon over.

EU leaders will also be discussing a blueprint on economic and social benchmarks to be reached by the end of 2020 as a follow-up to the derailed Lisbon strategy.

Back in 2000, member states had agreed to try to achieve a number of important targets by the end of the decade to turn the European economy into "the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world". However, this strategy failed to materialise with many member states, including Malta, being far off the mark.

Two of the Lisbon's Strategy's main targets - to achieve 70 per cent employment and to spend the equivalent of three per cent of GDP on research and development - failed miserably and the EU is trying to reach an agreement on less ambitious but more achievable targets for 2020.