European Union (EU) member states must get united at an upcoming summit in tackling the unfolding financial crisis, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said yesterday.

"To try and go it alone in this climate would be a fatal mistake for any government anywhere in Europe. This is an unprecedented crisis ... this is something that requires unprecedented EU action," Barroso told reporters before leaders from the 27 EU member states were due to meet in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday.

The regular EU summit in autumn was set to be dominated by the financial crisis, which has been devastating the European financial sector in recent weeks and is threatening the real economy.

Expectations were high that EU leaders could endorse a joint action plan agreed Sunday by the 15 nations that use the euro, which would see European governments buy into banks to boost their finances and temporarily guarantee bank refinancing to ease the credit crunch.

"I am glad that there is now a consensus on the necessity and on the substance of a coherent effort," Barroso said. "I expect confirmation and strengthening of this coherent effort by the European Council," referring to the summit of EU leaders.

In their most united move so far against the financial crisis, several European countries led by Germany and France announced on Monday their individual bailout packages, pledging more than 1 trillion euros to save troubled banks.

Barroso said till now the combined EU efforts stood at almost 2trillion euros (some 2.73 trillion U.S. dollars), dwarfing the U.S. bailout plan worth 700 billion U.S. dollars.

He stressed that all the measures are taken for Europe's real economy, not to save some financial actors from their own mistakes.

"Europeans need affordable and available credit. So that families can buy homes. So that workers can build up a decent pension. So that small businesses can start up and expand. So that jobs can be created. So that our leading edge companies can invest in research," he said.

Barroso said the European Commission is mulling plans to strengthen financial supervision at the EU level and bring down excessive executive pay.

He also called for better coordination at the international level.

"An urgent priority now must be to further deepen coordination at international level, and specifically with the United States," Barroso said, adding he supports the proposal by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to hold an international conference to reform the global finance system.