The enduring financial crisis spreading in the European Union (EU) is expected to be high on the agenda of the 27-member bloc's winter summit, which opens on Thursday in Brussels.
The following is a chronology of major events in the financial crisis in the region:
Sept. 29 -- Britain announces plan of nationalization of mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley Plc. Banking.
Sept. 29 -- Dutch-Belgian banking and insurance group Fortis is pulled back from the verge of bankruptcy as the governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg agree to invest a total of 11.2 billion euros (about 14.48 billion U.S. dollars) in return for a minority stake in the group.
Sept. 30 -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says his government will do "whatever it takes" to protect people's savings in the face of the ongoing global financial crisis.
Oct. 1 -- Belgium, France and Luxembourg rush to provide nearly 6.4 billion euros to save Franco-Belgian bank Dexia, the latest victim of the global credit crunch in Europe.
Oct. 1 -- The European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso calls for a joint response from the EU member states to the current financial crisis.
Oct. 2 -- Irish parliamentarians vote to enact radical legislation guaranteeing Irish bank deposits and debts up to a total of 400 billion euros.
Oct. 3 -- The Dutch government says it has bought all the Dutch operations of Belgian-Dutch banking and insurance group Fortis for 16.8 billion euros.
Oct. 4 -- Leaders from the EU's four largest economies -- Germany, Britain, France and Italy -- vow to work in a coordinated way in tackling financial crisis.
Oct. 5 -- Germany pledges to guarantee private deposits, which the government says is a "political" step to restore public confidence toward the banking system.
Oct. 6 -- The troubled banking and insurance group Fortis confirms that French banking giant BNP Paribas will buy all of Fortis' insurance operations in Belgium and a 75-percent stake in Fortis' banking activities in Belgium.
Oct. 8 -- The British government announces a 50-billion-pound bailout scheme for the financial system to help its biggest retail banks survive.
Oct. 9 -- The governments of Belgium, France and Luxembourg will guarantee all new borrowings and bond financings of the troubled lender Dexia until November next year, according to the bank.
Oct. 11 -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel call for joint actions from Europe or even the world to fight the ongoing critical financial crisis.
Oct. 12 -- Leaders from the eurozone countries hammer out an action plan in a joint response to the unfolding financial crisis at their first ever summit in Paris.
Oct. 12 -- The Norwegian government and the country's central bank announce that they would issue up to 350 billion kroner in new government bonds which can be used as collateral in Norwegian banks' funding operations, to boost confidence in the financial market in the country.
Oct. 13 -- The British government announces a plan to invest up to 37 billion pounds in three British banks -- Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS and Lloyds TSB -- to deal with the current financial crisis.
Oct. 13 -- Germany is to inject 70 billion euros into the banking system of the country this week as part of a rescue plan for the world economic system, according to German news agency DPA.
Oct. 13 -- The Netherlands will provide state guarantee to inter-bank loans of up to 200 billion euros in a bid to increase market liquidity by restarting capital flows among banks, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende says.
Oct. 15 -- The German parliament approves a government rescue package worth up to 500 billion euros for the country's financial sector.
Oct. 16 -- The EU summit endorses a joint action plan to fight the financial crisis.
Oct. 21 -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy urges EU countries to set up their sovereign wealth funds to buy stakes of troubled banks falling prey to the financial crisis.
Nov. 6 -- The Bank of England announces it would slash its interest rate by 1.5 percentage points to 3 percent, following pressure from industry for a major cut in the face of a looming recession.
Nov. 7 -- The special EU summit coordinates the bloc's positions ahead of the G-20 summit on financial crisis on Nov. 15 in Washington.
Nov. 15 -- Leaders attending the G-20 summit on financial markets and the global economy agree to an action plan of immediate and medium-term measures to cope with the financial and economic woes now gripping the world.
Nov. 24 -- Britain's Chancellor Alistair Darling unveils a series of measures, including a VAT cut from 17.5 percent to 15 percent for 13 months in his pre-budget report, to boost the ailing economy.
Nov. 25 -- The European Commission approves emergency efforts by the Latvian government to facilitate financing for the JSC Parex Bank.
Nov. 26 -- The European Commission unveils a significant economic stimulus package worth 200 billion euros in a bid to steer the EU economy from a deep recession.
Dec. 2 -- EU finance ministers approve a commission proposal for raising the ceiling for assistance to each member state in financial difficulty. The commission proposes raising the total amount of loans available from the current 12 billion euros to 25 billion euros.
Dec. 4 -- The European Central Bank lowers its benchmark rate by 0.75 percent in order to revitalize the slumping European economy.
Dec. 8 -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso meet in London, calling for more cooperation among EU leaders to respond to the economic crisis.
Dec. 9 -- The European Commission approves Austrian financial bailout plan which will cost billions of euros in guarantees, capital injections and loans to banks. (1 U.S. dollar = 0.77369 euro) |
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