AJE takes a look at Europe's credit rating

One of the world's leading credit-rating agencies has said that it may carry out an unprecedented mass downgrade of European countries if regional leaders fail to reach an agreement on how to solve the debt crisis in a summit later this week.

It is not the first time Standard and Poor's have made a warning of this kind.

Al Jazeera takes a look back at projected government credit ratings as Jacky Rowland reports from Paris about the timings the credit announcements will have on European economies.