A summit bringing together Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the head of the Spanish government, Mariano Rajoy, will take place on June 22 in Rome, the Italian government confirmed, on 1 June.

The four-way summit will be mainly devoted to the crisis in the eurozone, and will see Monti playing the role of mediator between Paris and Berlin. The talks will take place a week before the European Council of 28-29 June.

It was initially planned that the talks between the three leading economies in the eurozone would take place between the two rounds of the French elections. In the meantime, the Italian prime minister has also invited Ray to attend. The Spanish banking sector, which is currently collapsing under risky real estate assets, is causing great concern on the markets.

Within the framework of the summit, former European Commissioner Monti says he will “facilitate a synthesis between the French and German positions” on methods of re-launching growth. Like Berlin, Monti is calling for the balancing of public accounts, as well as the adoption of measures to re-launch economic growth, in order to compensate for the impact of budgetary austerity measures that have plunged several countries, including Italy, into recession.