The credit agency cited risks to the strongest member states with AAA ratings, such as Germany, France, Netherlands and the UK.
These countries account for around 45 percent of the EU's budget revenue, and according to Moody's, any difficulties experienced by these economies would have a knock-on effect on the whole bloc. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti welcomes French President Francois Hollande to Rome today, in a week that sees another round of diplomatic visits as eurozone members try to deal with the crisis. Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel is meeting with EU President Herman Van Rompuy in Berlin and the German premier had these tough words: "Change must be accepted. We know, because of experiments in Germany, that it's the only way to improve things. It's not enough to continue in the same way." The European Central Bank is under pressure to provide details of a new debt-buying scheme to help deeply indebted eurozone members. ECB President Mario Draghi has spoken of buying three-year government bonds to bring down borrowing costs for nations in financial distress.
SOURCE: Euronews
