The European Commission has issued a communication titled A Roadmap to Stability and Growth (communication). The key quote came from a statement by the heads of state or government of the Euro area and EU institutions: "We reaffirm our commitment to the Euro and to do whatever is needed to ensure the financial stability of the Euro area as a whole and its Member States." The five steps in the communication were: one, give a decisive response to the problems of Greece; two, enhance the Euro area's backstops against the crisis; three, strengthen the banking system, namely through recapitalisation; four, frontload stability and growth enhancing policies; and five, build a more robust and integrated economic governance. 

The communication also described the introduction of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). The communication stated that early introduction of the ESM would also reinforce confidence in the crisis resolution mechanism and bring the advantages of a more robust, permanent instrument. Efforts should be made to accelerate the technical preparation and ratification procedures to have the ESM operational by, for example, mid 2012.