European Union leaders will take "all the necessary steps" to ensure the stability of the bloc's financial system and protect citizens' savings, a joint statement issued on their behalf by the French presidency of the EU said Monday. Such measures would include the injection of liquidity by European central banks, bail-outs for troubled banks and guarantees for deposits, the joint statement said. Noting that no European depositor had lost their savings so far, the EU leaders called for "coordination and close cooperation" in dealing with the effects of the global credit crunch. The unprecedented statement came as European stock markets tumbled and as finance ministers from the 15 EU countries that share the euro were holding talks in Luxembourg on ways to deal with the continent's exploding financial crisis. Member states have hitherto reacted individually to events in their own countries, but the urgency of the crisis has sparked a rising chorus of calls for coordinated action. "I think it's extremely important that European countries use similar principles in how they treat banks in problems (sic), for example, how they intervene, what time they intervene, what policy measures they are prepared to apply," Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos said ahead of the meeting in Luxembourg. Officials from the EU's executive echoed that call, with EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia saying: "We should have a common approach, coordinated action, to avoid unilateral decisions that create negative spillovers."
