Most of the 27 EU governments released national rescue plan to stimulate economic growth.

Germany, the biggest European economy, passed a 31-billion-euro national stimulus package, while France announced a 26-billion- euro economic stimulus plan last Thursday, including cash payments to the poor, a bigger rebate on new car purchases and a speedup in high-cost public works projects.

Some other EU nations also announced colossal economic packages.

Differences remain

In the proposed 200-billion-euro economic stimulus package announced by the European Commission, 5 billion euros would go to energy and broadband projects, among which 4.5 billion euros would be used in funding for infrastructure projects.

EU financial and economic ministers approved the plan as a whole at their Council meeting last week, describing the direction of the plan as correct in the backdrop of the dire economic situation.

But some of them disagreed over funding energy and Internet infrastructure construction.

Germany and Poland said that unused funds from the EU annual budget of 120 billion euros should be returned to national pocket instead of being spent on EU-level program.

Besides, Germany fell out of line with other members, especially Britain and France, concerning tax cuts and more government spending.

The absence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel from a Monday meeting in London, where European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Britain Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy met, was widely seen as a sign of rift over the economic package.

The EU, Britain and France hoped that Germany could earmark more money to boost its own economy out of recession and thus help other EU members to weather the slowdown.

The three leaders insisted that Europe was united on the need for further action to stimulate the global economy, trying to pretend that no rift exists at all.

"I have full confidence in the efforts that Germany is making and will make," said Barroso. "Germany is the most important European economy, and so it would be completely unreasonable to think about any plan without the active cooperation of Germany."

The Merkel government insists on fiscal prudence, but she has been criticized both at home and abroad for what some have called an "isolationist approach" to the global financial crisis.

The EU governments are also divided over whether to lower VAT as the stimulus package proposed.

(Xinhua News Agency December 11, 2008)