Herman Van Rompuy has made his "grand entrance”, announces Le Soir. On 11 February the permanent president of the European Council is rounding up European leaders in Brussels for an informal summit with a view to reflating the European economy. He wants the EU to narrow its sights and adjust them to the current situation in each country. His battle plan also entails financial incentives for dutiful states that honour their obligations, rather than sanctions for wayward governments like Greece, which are hard to impose anyway. Finally, the ex-Belgian prime minister makes the case for an EU “economic government” to do a better job of coordinating national policies in the face of the recession. "This idea of an ‘economic government’ will please France, which has been fighting for this cause for years,” the Belgian daily adds. “However, other countries are still leery of the idea, especially Germany and Great Britain.”

Greeks should brace themselves for a "triple-whammy”: “a tax hike, later retirement, and a pay freeze,” leads Athenian daily To Ethnos. In the runup to the European Council session on 11 February, Georges Papandreou’s government has been holding a series of crisis meetings and outlining its austerity plan with a view to fixing public finances now knocked for six by the country’s colossal debt. Brussels is on tenterhooks, watching their every move in fear for the stability of the euro. The country’s civil servants, asked to “set an example” by accepting a pay cut in real terms, have announced a strike on 10 February.

The British are increasingly gloomy about the state of their country, the front page of The Times reveals today. According to a new poll, 70% of voters believe that Britain is “a broken country,” while 64% also feel that Britain “is going in the wrong direction”. With  60% “hardly recognise the country they are living in”, nearly half the respondents claimed that they “would emigrate if they could.” For The Times’ leader, this strain of deep pessimism is a crisis of trust – “First, the political class is discredited. The expenses scandal is central.” Also, the leader pursues, voters are cynical about capitalism and fear for their jobs, with 68% believing that “people who play by the rules always get a raw deal”. Many of these themes echo the Conservative party’s long-running claim that 13 years of Labour government have led to a “broken Britain.” However, the poll is not all bad news for Gordon Brown, with Labour up 2 points to 30% against its Tory rivals, which makes the prospect of a hung parliament increasingly likely in this year’s general election.