Europe

Europe

Slovak president ratifies addendum to EFSF

17 October 2011 20:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A spokesman for Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic on Monday said the the president had ratified on Friday the supplement to the international agreement on the eurozone safety net European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), APA reports.

The revamped emergency funding program was approved in the Slovak parliament on Thursday, the last among all 17 eurozone countries to greenlight the expansion of the EFSF.

According to the addendum, the guarantees provided by Slovakia in the new EFSF will be increased from the current 4.4 billion euros to 7.7 billion euros.

With a total population of just 5.4 million, Slovakia came into the spotlight by becoming the first country in the 17-member eurozone to say "no" to support bolstering the EFSF in a parliament vote on Tuesday last week.

The EFSF deal was intended to increase its coffers, allow it to buy bonds from the market to support countries under attack, bail out members who need funding and help failing banks.

Under pressure from its euro zone partners, Slovakia finally ratified new powers for the EFSF on Thursday, after the opposition agreed to support the plan in return for a deal to hold an early election.