国际英语新闻：EU leaders seek unlikely happy end to euro's annus horribilis

BRUSSELS, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- For anybody who has followed the euro's horrible year, this week's European Union (EU) summit followed a predictable scenario.

First, leaders held a bout of late night wrangling before emerging to proclaim a ground-breaking agreement that will resolve months of market instability and restore confidence in the battered euro.

"This is a great day for Europe," exclaimed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, after the summit agreed to create a permanent bailout mechanism to replace the current 750-billion-euro (995- billion-dollar) rescue fund, which is due to expire in 2013.

Markets were briefly positive. The euro rose after Thursday's announcement. But then analysts started to pick apart the deal.

They worried that the current fund will not be big enough to rescue Spain, if it follows Greece and Ireland down the path to financial meltdown. They highlighted divisions over plans to create "euro-bonds" that might form the base of more durable solution.

Fears emerged that parliaments in any of the 27 EU nations might reject the changes in the EU's Lisbon Treaty needed to set up the new fund. The influential ratings agency Moody's downgraded Ireland's debt after issuing warnings that Spain and Greece may soon face a similar relegation.

The crux of the issue is that markets remain to be convinced that Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain and perhaps other eurozone nations will be able to meet the interest rate payments on their huge national debts.

While that doubt lingers, the markets will only loan more money to those countries in return for ever higher interest rates. That creates a vicious circle by making borrowing more expensive for the highly indebted nations.