Europes leaders reach deal on eurozone debt

European leaders have reached a deal on the eurozone debt crisis they will hope will revive the continent’s fortunes and restore market confidence.

After 10 hours of talks in Brussels that ran into the early hours of this morning, an agreement was reached to write off 50% of Greece’s debt.

They also approved a mechanism to boost the eurozone’s bailout fund to around 1tn euros (£880bn), which will help shore up the faltering economies of Spain and Italy.

Banks have been asked to raise around 160 euros (£92.2bn) in fresh capital as part of the deal, intended to stop the spread of the crisis to other countries.

Markets rose in response to the deal, which adds to an earlier decision to recapitalise banks.

The deal comes as Christians this week called for a re-examination of the moral values underpinning the global economy.

In a newly published note on international financial reform, the Vatican called for “serious reflection” on the causes of the current economic crisis, and the cultural and moral values “at the basis of social coexistence”.

“The crisis has revealed behaviours like selfishness, collective greed and the hoarding of goods on a great scale,” said the note, issued by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

The Council expresses particular concern about the widening gap between rich and poor in the world.

“No one can in conscience accept the development of some countries to the detriment of others,” it states.

“If no solutions are found to the various forms of injustice, the negative effects that will follow on the social, political and economic level will be destined to create a climate of growing hostility and even violence, and ultimately undermine the very foundations of democratic institutions, even the ones considered most solid.

“Recognising the primacy of being over having and of ethics over the economy, the world’s peoples ought to adopt an ethic of solidarity as the animating core of their action.

“This implies abandoning all forms of petty selfishness and embracing the logic of the global common good which transcends merely contingent, particular interests.

“In a word, they ought to have a keen sense of belonging to the human family which means sharing the common dignity of all human beings.”

In a similar call, the European Evangelical Alliance’s General Secretary Niek Tramper said the crisis reflected a spiritual crisis characterised by fear and egoism, instead of love and respect for God and neighbour.

“The crisis is not accidental but a consequence of a moral crisis,” he said in a statement this week.

“Human and social values of justice, freedom and solidarity have been replaced by distrust, greed and self-enrichment.”