ESM board to meet Oct 8 after German green light: Juncker

(BRUSSELS) - The board of the eurozone rescue firewall behind Spanish bank and possibly also sovereign debt rescues will hold its first meeting on October 8, Eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker announced on Wednesday.

"I plan to convene the inaugural meeting of the European Stability Mechanism board of governors in the margins of the Eurogroup meeting of 8 October in Luxembourg," Luxembourg premier Juncker said in a statement.

He spoke after Germany's top court approved the 500-billion-euro ($645-billion) fund for ratification, with a few minor conditions.

The finance ministers of the 17 eurozone states are also the governors of the ESM firewall.

In a landmark ruling watched around the world, Germany's Constitutional Court overturned a raft of legal challenges aimed at preventing President Joachim Gauck from signing two crucial crisis-fighting tools into law.

They also rejected challenges to a Treaty on Stability, Cooperation and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union that commits 25 European Union states minus Britain and the Czech Republic to a series of budgetary "golden rules."

The second treaty will enter into force once 12 eurozone states have ratified it, and not earlier than January 1, 2013.

"I look forward to the completion of the outstanding procedures," Juncker said in reference to the new eurozone defences.

"Both treaties represent a major step forward towards closer fiscal and economic integration and stronger governance in the euro area," Juncker added.

"They are part of our comprehensive strategy to bolster the outlook for fiscal sustainability and growth in the euro area."

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle hailed the ruling as a "smart decision in the pro-European spirit of our constitution."