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Leaders of EU countries met for an informal summit on Wednesday evening to discuss growth and jobs in Europe. It was the first summit for newly elected President of France and the first summit to focus directly on growth. Here's more.

European leaders agreed that growth measures should go hand-in-hand with dealing with deficits as they left an informal EU summit in the early hours of Thursday. Three main pillars for stimulating growth have been identified: fiscal consolidation, structural reforms for competitiveness and targeted investment.

The summit is the first one dedicated specifically to boosting economic growth and creating jobs in the euro zone; it was closely watched by the European Parliament and civil society.

[Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament]:
"This is the 24th summit we've had since the beginning of the crisis in 2008 and it is the first summit that is specifically dealing with employment and growth."

The summit took place during difficult time when European economic growth is at a standstill.

[Francois Hollande, President of France]:
"Today the European growth is at zero in 2012, and there is recession in the euro zone. And the expectations for 2013 are relatively pessimistic as the total growth for the European Union is around 1%."

Severe concerns are mounting about the Greek economy and the Spanish banking sector. Prime Minister of Spain Mariano Rajoy confirmed his commitment to deficit reduction.

[Mariano Rajoy, Prime Minister of Spain]:
"I defended the need for control in public spending, that's to say that the public sector does not spend what it doesn't have, and I reaffirmed Spain's commitment to control the public deficit."

European leaders stressed that they want Greece to remain in the euro zone, while respecting its financial commitments.

NTD, Brussels