On Monday, Moody's Investors Service downgraded six euro-zone countries and lowered its outlook for three other countries in the EU.

Italy, Malta and Spain's ratings were all lowered to A3 – that's just four places above speculative-grade ratings. Spain's rating was lowered by two notches, from A1, while Italy's and Malta's were brought down one notch from A2.

Portugal, Slovakia and Slovenia also saw their ratings slashed. Portugal was brought down from Ba2 to Ba3, while both Slovakia and Slovenia were downgraded to A2 from A1.

Moreover, three other European Union countries – Austria, France and the UK – saw their outlooks changed to negative.

Moody's said the main drivers of the actions included, “The uncertainty over (i) the euro area's prospects for institutional reform of its fiscal and economic framework and (ii) the resources that will be made available to deal with the crisis.”

It also cited increasingly weak macroeconomic prospects in Europe and the impact that these factors will continue to have on market confidence, which Moody's says is “likely to remain fragile, with a high potential for further shocks to funding conditions for stressed sovereigns and banks.”

In a research note X-Trade Brokers said that Moody's used the better sentiment in the market after Greece's approval of austerity measures, “to remind investors about the problems of the euro area.”

“Most telling is the downgrade of Spain by two levels,” the brokerage said, “because in Spain recently, little has been said about the market. Investors had found that the austerity measures initiated by the government and the improvement in the debt market were sufficient to move this country from danger.”