France, Germany to Take Lead in Helping Greece

Leaders, who gathered for the European Union Summit in Brussels Thursday, said that the 27 member states have reached an agreement to help bail out Greece if necessary.

"Euro area member states will take determined and co-ordinated action if needed to safeguard stability in the euro area as a whole," said EU president Herman Van Rompuy, according to The Guardian. "The Greek government has not requested any financial support."

Greece's debt crisis came to head this week with protests and social unrest further destabilizing the country's weak economy. The national debt is expected to hit 120 percent of GDP this year — more than $400 billion and four times the amount allowed by EU rules, reports AOL News. Unemployment is near 20 percent. It's the first major currency crisis in the 11-year history of the Euro.

The move by the other EU member states was intended to reassure world markets that they will band together to help address the crisis. The fear is that if Greece's economy is allowed to fail, then the crisis could spread to other weak economies in the Europe, such as Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and Spain. There are plans to revisit the situation in a month, but any assistance will likely come in the form of bilateral loans from France and Germany, the EU's two largest economies.

The Guardian reports that France and Germany are pushing for a "new architecture for markets" in the wake of the global recession. EU leaders, gathered in Brussels this week, are expected address the effect of the economic downturn on members states and to create a European monetary fund, modeled on the US-lead International Monetary Fund.

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