The leaders of central and eastern European countries in the European Union will hold a mini-summit on the economic crisis and energy security with European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso on March 1, an official said Friday.
The meeting in Brussels will take place just before an extraordinary E.U. summit in the Belgian capital to discuss the financial and economic slump that has left Europe in recession.
"Mr Barroso has accepted the invitation," which follows a Polish initiative, E.U. Commission spokesman Amadeu Altafaj Tardio told reporters.
The economic problems and concerns over energy security will be discussed, he said.
Some eastern European nations have been calling on their western partners to do more to help their economies out of the financial slump.
One of the main reasons behind the larger E.U. summit on March 1 is to tackle growing concerns over protectionism by E.U. nations attempting to bail out or shore up their ailing banks and industries.
The question of energy security for the E.U. came back to the fore, particularly in the newer eastern nations, when a row between Russia and Ukraine led to a key natural gas pipeline to Europe being shut down during a very cold winter spell in January.