European Union leaders today rejected protectionism to prevent a new "iron curtain" dividing the 27-nation bloc into rich and poor halves during the global economic crisis.
At a summit called to bridge differences over how to handle the crisis, leaders made a new commitment to the EU's single market - a response to concerns that any protectionist moves to prop up national industries would undermine EU unity.
They did not agree on any regional aid package to the whole of central and eastern Europe after opposition from German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Warning the recession could cause new divisions in Europe two decades after the collapse of communist rule in the east, Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said: "We should not allow a new 'Iron Curtain' to . . . divide Europe into two parts."
"At the beginning of the 90s we reunified Europe. Now it is another challenge - whether we can unify Europe in terms of financing and its economy," he said.
Addressing such concerns, the leaders said the single market should be used as an engine for economic recovery.
"We agreed that as much as possible we should use the single market as a motor for growth," said Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose former communist country holds the EU presidency till the end of June.
The Union is split between rich countries such as France which want strong action to buoy industry, especially car makers, and poorer ones - largely in the east - who cannot afford such bail-outs.
Germany, the bloc's biggest economy, has said EU nations must be ready to help each other but has not explained how. It has resisted proposals such as issuing a euro zone bond to raise funds for worse-off members of the currency zone.
Hungary called last week for a 180-billion-euro ($228 billion) aid package for central and eastern Europe, whose currencies have taken a battering in the crisis.
But Ms Merkel said the former communist countries of central and eastern Europe were not all in the same state. "I see a very different situation (among eastern countries) . . .
I do not advise going into the debate with massive figures," she said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said today European Union leaders should put off choosing the chief of the executive commission from June until after an October referendum on the bloc's new treaty in Ireland.
Speaking after an EU summit, Mr Sarkozy reiterated his support for Jose Manuel Barroso, a former Portuguese prime minister widely expected to seek a second five-year term to lead the European Commission, which proposes EU-wide legislation.
Reuters