Analysis: A weekend to save the euro

Major analysis feature. In the nearly two years European leaders have spent trying to tackle the eurozone debt crisis, the summits foreshadowed as those that will finally pull off the grand bargain that puts the single currency back on a firm footing are almost too numerous to count.

What sets the latest on the 23 October 2011 summit in Brussels apart is that policymakers’ greatest fear at the start of the crisis – that the fiscal troubles of a small country on Europe’s periphery would infect the global economy – has come true.

To meet the challenge, Europe’s leaders were trying to solve three simultaneous problems on the 23 October 2011 at the European council summit: putting Greece on a solid foundation through a second bail-out; re-establishing confidence in Europe’s largest banks by ordering them to raise capital; and giving the newly empowered €440bn eurozone rescue fund more firepower so it can ensure Greek difficulties do not spread to Italy and larger financial institutions.