Discombobulate: To confuse or disconcert; upset; frustrate. Sometimes, such bombastic words are the only ones which can accurately portray a situation, in this case, the European Union and the eurozone members which are desperately trying to find a ‘permanent’ solution to the euro crisis.

In attending the European Council, it was possible to actually feel the frustration, disconcertion and upset of all those involved. The buck finally had to stop, and stop it did. The last four or five summits did seek a way to solve the crisis, but as UK Chancellor George Osborne put it, the measures agreed on were merely sticking plasters that lasted about two weeks.

Questioned by this newspaper, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was in complete agreement on Tuesday night, saying that a permanent solution needed to be found and that Europe could not be cornered into a situation where it had to convene emergency meetings every month or so.

Greece is in a mess, that much is now clear. And it will only be when the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the EU report on Greece becomes public that the eurozone will know exactly how much cash the beleaguered nation needs.

In addition, Europe has finally conceded that Spain and Italy – two behemoth economies – will probably be affected and sucked into the mire, and as a result, a contingency plan needs to be put into effect, as soon as humanely possible.

But although no apathy reigned amongst the general public and the journalists reporting the summit on Sunday, there did seem to be a sense of unity and determination to solve the problem and come up with a plan. In fact, one could say that rather than adopt the ‘let’s see how it goes’ attitude, European leaders have finally faced up to the problem and seemed absolutely dead set on reversing the slide which has consumed the continent. However, last minute difficulties cropped up last night, at the time of going to print, throwing the bloc back into confusion.

One hopes that in today’s emergency summit, European leaders will come up with a plan to save the euro and protect Italy and Spain (and in turn the rest of Europe) from complete financial collapse. But one thing is certain, European leaders were, over the weekend, shaken and, to use that wonderful word again; discombobulated.

At the start of the first raft of talks, no one actually seemed to know exactly what was going on, and what could be done to improve the situation. By the early hours of Monday morning, however, the mood seemed to have lifted and gave way to a sense of relief. The leaders are keeping their cards close to their chest, perhaps in an effort to play reverse psychology of the vulture credit agencies, and it seems to be working.

The eurozone does however recognise the need to shore up the bailout fund to contain the debt turmoil that threatens to engulf more countries across Europe, and German lawmakers said the plan could boost the fund’s lending capacity to more than €1 trillion. But now, it is all going to be a case of finding a compromise between the Germans’ desire to follow up the matter with a legalised text, and France and others (including Malta) who want to see immediate and practical measures, perhaps to be followed up by treaty change in the future.

What we certainly don’t want to see is more tantrums by Nicolas Sarkozy and more bullishness by David Cameron. Both the UK and France are vital players, whatever currency is used, and bad blood will help no one.