The heads of state and government of the 28-member EU Thursday evening began a meeting expected to discuss two major issues, investments and the crisis in Ukraine.
The meeting will discuss two main challenges investment climate and the situation in the East, the new President of the European Council Donald Tusk told reporters here.
"The economic situation has improved but we are not safe as yet," said Tusk who chairs the EU summit meeting for the first time.
On his part, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said: "We have a long-term economic plan in Britain that we've been working too. We saw this week that the plan is working: inflation down at 1 percent, unemployment falling again." "But obviously our long-term economic plan and growth and success can only be sustained if we get growth in the major economies here on continental Europe. "What I'll be pushing forward is, yes, we need this investment plan that we're discussing today, but we also need trade deals to open up markets for our exporters and businesses," Cameron added.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said the economic situation in Europe is not easy.
She expressed her happiness that the European Commission has eliminated 80 legislative projects.
"EU must only do things that it can do better than member states. We need growth-friendly budget consolidation and elimination of bureaucracy. The investments must go into projects of the future, for instance the digital economy," she added.