Europe Scrambling to Complete Debt-Relief Plan

 　　With 24 hours to go before another summit, European leaders were scrambling¹ Tuesday to complete a plan to resolve the continent's governmental debt contagion².

　　The outline of a package of reforms is emerging, but details have yet to be set. The plan calls for European banks to forgive billions of dollars of debt for Greece and sharply increase their own cash reserves. At the same time, the size of the continent's bailout fund would be boosted to assist other debt-ridden countries in the future.

　　The European heads of state have promised a debt-relief plan by Wednesday when they meet in Brussels for their second summit in four days to try to resolve the two-year-old crisis.

　　World financial markets have been roiled³ in recent weeks as the continent's officials have moved slowly in their efforts to keep Greece from defaulting on its international obligations. The European leaders are also trying to keep the debt crisis from spreading to bigger economies in Italy and Spain, and sending world economies into a tailspin.

　　Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou called the impending⁴ decisions "a critical time," requiring European leaders to "remain clear-headed and calm."

　　Reaching agreement on the plan has proved difficult.

　　European leaders want banks holding Greek debt to write off as much as 60 percent of the money they are owed, nearly three times the amount they agreed to in July when Greece's second bailout in two years was approved. The banks, however, are only offering to assume losses of 40 percent.  A middle-ground 50 percent loss would amount to about $243 billion.

　　While agreeing to bigger losses, the banks would also be required to increase their cash reserves next year by about $139 billion. But the exact timing⁵ of the requirement remains⁶ in question.

　　The European leaders are also calling for an increase in the $596 billion bailout fund for the bloc⁷ of 17 nations that use the common euro currency. It could be increased to nearly $1.4 trillion, without requiring European governments to provide more money. Instead, they hope to craft a plan to insure against possible future losses in hopes of attracting new capital from private investors⁸ and countries like China that have cash to invest.

　　While the immediate⁹ focus has been on debt-ridden Greece, German Chancellor¹⁰ Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are pressing Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to move faster to adopt new economic reforms to stave off the need for an Italian bailout.

　　Berlusconi has started emergency negotiations¹¹ to try to raise Italy's retirement¹² age from 65 to 67, but so far has been unable to convince his Northern League political partner to go along with the change.

1 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 contagion   

n.(通过接触的疾病)传染；蔓延

参考例句：

• A contagion of fear swept through the crowd.一种恐惧感在人群中迅速蔓延开。
• The product contagion effect has numerous implications for marketing managers and retailers.产品传染效应对市场营销管理者和零售商都有很多的启示。

3 roiled   

v.搅混（液体）( roil的过去式和过去分词 )；使烦恼；使不安；使生气

参考例句：

• American society is being roiled by the controversy over homosexual marriage. 当今美国社会正被有关同性恋婚姻的争论搞得不得安宁。 来自互联网
• In the past few months, instability has roiled Tibet and Tibetan-inhabited areas. 在过去的几个月里，西藏和藏人居住区不稳定。 来自互联网

4 impending   

a.imminent, about to come or happen

参考例句：

• Against a background of impending famine, heavy fighting took place. 即将发生饥荒之时，严重的战乱爆发了。
• The king convoke parliament to cope with the impending danger. 国王召开国会以应付迫近眉睫的危险。

5 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

7 bloc   

n.集团；联盟

参考例句：

• A solid bloc of union members support the decision.工会会员团结起来支持该决定。
• There have been growing tensions within the trading bloc.贸易同盟国的关系越来越紧张。

8 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

9 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

10 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

11 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

12 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。