A guide to the euro crisis summit

[The Telegraph]

Economics editor Philip Aldrick addresses the key issues European leaders are trying to sort out in Brussels – and what it means for Britain

Remind me, why is Europe in crisis?
Markets are giving up on the whole euro project due to the high levels of public borrowing in several eurozone countries, and the monetary straitjacket a currency union imposes. At the centre of the crisis is Greece, which clearly cannot repay its debts. On its own, Greece would be small enough for the eurozone to contain, but similar questions are now being asked about the far larger economies of Spain and Italy. As things currently stand, the eurozone simply does not have the firepower to rescue Spain and Italy, having already bailed out Greece, Portugal and Ireland.
Markets, though, are threatening to precipitate the very events they fear  by pushing up the cost of borrowing, thereby making a country's public finances unaffordable. Politics is making a bad situation worse. Countries like Italy have been too slow in addressing their economic problems to demonstrate they can reduce their debts. At the same time, ideological differences between member states on how to restore confidence in the euro are proving almost insurmountable.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8843335/A-guide-to-the-euro-crisis-summit.html