The European Commission promised more flexibility in how it applies state aid rules to banks hit by the credit crisis on Tuesday after governments lashed out at the difficulties in getting European Union approval for bail-outs.

“If the protective measures we’ve organised in Germany and other European countries are to work in this crisis, we must have a secure framework very quickly for the banks,” Peer Steinbruck, Germany’s finance minister, said on the fringes of a meeting of EU finance ministers on Tuesday. Anders Borg, Sweden’s finance minister, echoed this, saying Europe needed to “call off these legions of state aid bureaucrats”.