European leaders on Thursday agreed measures to support industry hit by the financial crisis, but Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende called for EU rules on state support to be respected, the Financieele Dagblad reports.

At a summit in Brussels, the leaders of the 27 European nations agreed to ask the Commission to come up with ways of helping industry which has been hit by the economic downturn. They called on the Commission to make its ideas known before the end of the year.
But Balkenende told the FD he was reluctant to support direct aid to industry itself. Instead, efforts should be made to strengthen Europe’s economic base, the paper reported him as saying. ‘It is about growth and jobs,’ he said.
The conclusion of the new agreement includes the proviso that the EU’s rules on state support for industry must be kept in mind and adhered to, Balkenende was reported as saying.