-EU leaders
After European Union leaders gathered in Brussels to discuss a response to the Crimean crisis, they decided to impose sanctions on another 12 individuals, thus bringing the blacklist to total of 33 officials. However, European leaders failed to agree on broader political and economic sanctions, but signalled that more will follow to complement EU visa bans and asset freezes. This inability to come up to a compromise indicates a fear of abrading relations with Russia, as many European countries largely depend on Russian commodities. Also, the EU cancelled a scheduled EU-Russia summit in June, which was supposed to be held in Sochi and agreed to sign integration treaties with Moldova and Georgia shortly.
Elsewhere, Greece's sovereign credit rating was maintained at six notches below investment at B- grade by Standard & Poor's, which said the nation's debt is still large even as its government's fiscal performance enhances. However, the rating agency gave a stable outlook, as it believed that the Greek economy was gradually rebalancing. The Troika this week ended its six-month review mission to Greece, saying that the country is on track to meet fiscal goals, with the economy growing this year for the first time in seven years, according to the European Commission's estimates. Fitch assigns Greece a B– rating, while Moody's rates it Caa3.
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