Slovakia mulls October vote on eurozone bailout
(BRATISLAVA) - Slovakia on Wednesday mulled a date for a crucial vote on expanding the eurozone bailout fund aimed at rescuing Greece, with parliament pegging October 25, while the premier insisted it happen before the 17th.
Parliament speaker Richard "Sulik has confirmed that parliament will vote on October 25 at 9 am in the morning," his spokeswoman Tatiana Tothova told AFP.
But centre-right Prime Minister Iveta Radicova said later that parliament must decide on the EFSF rescue mechanism before October 17, when the next EU summit is scheduled to start.
"I can't leave for the summit without an answer, no matter what the answer would be," Radicova told journalists in Bratislava.
"Slovakia's position has to be clear before the summit, otherwise the summit won't have anything to discuss," she added.
Slovakia's centrist Prime Minister Iveta Radicova officially supports increasing the size of the EFSF and giving it new powers.
But Radicova's four-party coalition, which commands a majority 79 seats in the 150-member parliament, cannot push the rescue package through without the 22 votes of Sulik's Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), a junior coalition partner.
Eurosceptic SaS has repeatedly vowed to torpedo the EFSF's passage, arguing it is futile to throw good money after bad in light of a probable Greek default.
The party has suggested Greece exit the eurozone and go ahead with a managed default in order to save the single currency union now comprising 17 EU members.
At a July 21 summit eurozone leaders decided to increase the European Financial Stability Facility to 440 billion euros ($598 billion) to rescue debt plagued eurozone members like Greece from default.
They also gave the EFSF new powers to help prevent contagion from sweeping the eurozone, but the changes must be approved by parliaments in all 17 countries which share the euro.
Without SaS, Radicova would have to team up with the largest opposition party, the social democratic Smer, to ratify the rescue package.
But Smer leader, former prime minister Robert Fico, has said his party would back the proposal only if the coalition votes for it unanimously.
Radicova's centre-right coalition has said previously that the country will be the last eurozone member to ratify the rescue mechanism.
However, on Wednesday chairman of the junior-coalition Christian Democrat (KDH) party Jan Figel called for earlier ratification, while last week Finance Minister Ivan Miklos had vowed the vote would go ahead October 11 at the latest.
An EU member since 2004 and part of the eurozone since 2009, Slovakia was the only country to refuse to participate in an emergency loan for Greece last year.
By Wednesday, ten eurozone members had ratified the EFSF including Belgium, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Slovenia.
Two more were to vote later this week, namely Germany on Thursday and Austria on Friday. Cyprus will follow next week.
Remaining eurozone members Estonia, Malta, the Netherlands and Slovakia will vote in October.