Slovakia delays key decision on expanding EFSF
THE FOUR parties of Slovakia’s ruling coalition ended talks on trying to solve a dispute over expanding the Eurozone’s European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) safety net without a deal yesterday but will continue discussions from 7am this morning, the Slovakian prime minister said.
Government sources said Prime Minister Iveta Radicova had threatened to resign earlier if a deal was not reached over ratifying an expansion the EFSF agreed by Eurozone leaders in July. The junior ruling SaS party has vowed to block the measure.
The senior party in Slovakia’s centre-right coalition is believed to have offered a new compromise proposal to a junior partner its support for expanding the size and powers of the Eurozone’s bailout fund.
Under the proposal, all future funding for Eurozone bailouts disbursed by the EFSF would be subject to approval by the Slovak government and parliament’s budget and finance committee.
But no veto rights would be given to individual parties, a stipulation the dissenting liberal SaS party has demanded.
The proposal also offers that a special committee of party experts would be created to assess Slovakia’s position on the disbursement of EFSF loans.