A week ago, the Euro-zone countries punted, and markets crashed around the world. Today’s meeting in Paris went a little smoother. NYT:

Taking their cue from a rescue plan announced last week by Britain, the European countries pledged to take equity stakes in distressed banks and vowed to guarantee bank lending for periods up to five years. Both France and Germany were planning to unveil national rescue packages on Monday worth hundreds of billions of euros, official said.

“The meeting that we had was exceptional,” President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, said at a news conference. “We need concrete measures, we need unity. That’s what we achieved. The plan on which we agreed today will be applied in all our respective states.” The plan “treats all the dimensions of the financial crisis,” Mr. Sarkozy said.

The Belgian finance minister, Didier Reynders, said, “We are committed in all European states to recapitalize banks if we establish a threat to solvency and a risk to the economy…The goal is to kick-start the interbank lending market”…Mr. Reynders said the European Central Bank had also committed to helping to unfreeze the commercial paper market, which companies use to finance day-to-day operations. Leaders of the 15 countries that use the euro did not put a price tag on any of their promises…

Bloomberg elaborated: “The key measures announced today are: a pledge to guarantee new bank debt issuance until the end of 2009; permission for governments to shore up banks by buying preferred shares; and a commitment to recapitalize any ‘systemically’ critical banks in distress. France, Germany, Italy and other countries will announce national measures tomorrow, Sarkozy said. ‘I don’t even want to imagine what might happen’ if the markets react negatively, Klaus-Peter Mueller, head of the German banking association, said.” Indeed.

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