The ECB is expected to cut rates and unveil a new package of bank aid on Thursday, with markets also watching for any hint it will intensify its bond buying support for the bloc’s struggling periphery, setting the stage for a critical eurozone summit.

The European Central Bank meeting, which has already started, comes a day before a supposedly make-or-break EU summit which will aim to agree on key rule changes to anchor coercive budget discipline for the 17 countries that share the euro.

The ECB is hoping to persuade the bloc’s governments to give Brussels more say on their spending and accept automatic sanctions if they step out of line – issues it sees as crucial to fixing the region’s problems long-term – by dangling the prospect of scaling up its purchases of troubled states’ debt.

A Reuters survey of 73 analysts showed a 60-percent chance the ECB will cut rates by 25 basis points for the second month running, back to the record low of one percent it reached during the financial crisis in 2009.

With the eurozone in such turmoil it may also signal that going below one percent with rates is no longer an ECB taboo.

New ECB President Mario Draghi, who has had a pro-active first month in charge of the bank, reinforced expectations for a rate cut last week when he warned the eurozone’s economy was deteriorating and stressed the bank would fight deflation as aggressively as it does inflation.