Prime Minister Donald Tusk is in Brussels today for a two-day EU summit where government leaders will be discussing responses to the crisis in Libya and firming up the plan for a rescue fund to stop the debt crisis spreading throughout the 17 member euro zone.

Finance ministers on Monday laid the ground work for a permanent bailout fund, operational in mid-2013.

Originally confined to current members of the Euro Zone, aspiring nations such as Poland have also won the right to join up - something which Prime Minister Tusk sees as a victory for those who want to avoid a two-speed EU.

"I am happy to say that the fear that [the pact] will strengthen the temptation to create a two-speed has been averted," Tusk said on 11 March.

Poland has also signed a letter from the UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia to president of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso calling for more liberal economic reform of the EU, including opening up Europe’s services market and creating a digital single market - a move which could be opposed by the more left wing governments such as Spain.

Another potentially awkward issue is the coalition action against the Gaddafi regime in Libya which has seen a split in the responses of governments. London and Paris are leading the bombing action over Tripoli while countries such as Germany and Poland remain on the sidelines, promising humanitarian help but no more.

A split among the 27 nations is also expected in response to the crisis in Japan following the tsunami and the shutdown of the Fukashima nuclear reactor.

Germany has announced a three-month pause before it decides what to do with its older reactors, which it could not close down. Poland however has announced that it intends to push ahead with its nuclear programme, with the first reactor scheduled to come online in 2020. (pg)