European leaders on Saturday called "incomprehensible" Standard and Poor's credit rating downgrades of nine debt-laden EU countries, including stripping France and Austria of their top triple-A rating.
Only Germany escaped unscathed, as all other eurozone members were either downgraded -- some by two notches -- or else warned their current ratings were being re-examined amid fears about sovereign debt.
"It is incomprehensible when one of three US rating agencies decides to go it alone and downgrade eurozone countries' ratings or give them a negative outlook," the Austrian government said in a statement, adding that "solutions (to the debt crisis) have been and are being worked out in close cooperation".
