Madrid/Brussels: Spain has made its most explicit call to date for European institutions to recapitalise the country’s banks. amid concerns about its own ability to raise the billions of euros needed on sovereign bond markets.

Cristóbal Montoro, budget minister in the centre-right government, sent jitters through financial markets on Tuesday when he admitted that the high perceived risk of Spanish sovereign debt meant Spain “does not have the door to the markets open”.

The comment startled analysts given that the Spanish treasury plans to auction up to €2bn of bonds on Thursday.

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As European nations clash on the football fields of Poland and Ukraine, many of their economies are facing something more like relegation. Who would come out on top in the struggle to avoid economic crisis?

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Spain poised to seek bailout
By Peter Spiegel in Brussels
Spain could request bailout aid for its struggling domestic banks as early as Saturday during conference calls between officials from all 17 eurozone finance ministries, making Madrid the fourth member of the single currency bloc to need a rescue from EU authorities since the outbreak of the sovereign debt crisis.
People briefed on planning for the calls, one with senior officials and a second with finance ministers themselves, said leaders want to move pre-emptively in order to assuage growing market uncertainty. The decision was first reported by Reuters.

BRUSSELS, June 9 (Reuters) - A bailout for Spain's teetering banks, once requested by Madrid, could amount to as much as 100 billion euros, two senior EU sources told Reuters on Saturday.

Spain has not yet made a formal request for European aid but it could come during a conference call of euro zone finance ministers, the sources, who were both on an earlier call to discuss the technicalities of a rescue, said.

"A decision on Spain will only be taken ... by the ministers (in a second call). Madrid has not officially asked for help yet," one of the officials said. "The statement will mention 100 billion euros as an upper limit."

The Eurogroup of finance ministers is scheduled to begin its call at 4 p.m. Brussels time (1400 GMT). Earlier, its chairman, Jean-Claude Juncker, called for a "quick solution".