EU bonds for Ireland, Romania attract strong demand

(BRUSSELS) - European Commission bonds worth 4.6 billion euros ($6.4 billion) to finance loans to bailed out Ireland and Romania were three times oversubscribed Thursday, the EU said.

Ireland will receive 3.4 billion euros under the commission-based European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) and Romania 1.2 billion euros under another European Union package for non-eurozone states in difficulty.

From 2013, the 60-billion EFSM is to be merged with the 440-billion-euro European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) to create a permanent European Stability Mechanism to help eurozone countries in financial distress.

EU leaders meeting next week on the issue will have to ratify treaty change in all 27 member states.

The loans to Ireland and Romania will be transferred on March 24, the commission said.

The Irish loan is part of a 67.5 billion euro EU-IMF rescue package that was approved late last year to save Dublin from a banking crisis. Ireland became the second eurozone country to need a bailout last year after Greece.

In May 2009, crisis-hit Romania, which is not part of the eurozone, obtained a two-year 20-billion-euro lifeline from the IMF, the EU and the World Bank in exchange for key reforms aimed at slashing public spending.