The Netherlands will contribute €26bn to the €500bn guarantee fund being set up by eurozone members to shore up the euro, acting finance minister Jan Kees de Jager said on Sunday evening.

The EU effort is part of a global effort to stabilise the world financial markets in the wake of the Greek debt crisis, worth an estimated $1 trillion, according to Reuters news agency.
De Jager emphasised the Dutch contribution is in the form a of a guarantee and if all goes well, will cost the Netherlands nothing.
If EU leaders and central bankers had not given a strong signal to the markets, the entire eurozone could have got into difficulty, De Jager said. The measures taken are a ‘defence mechanism against speculators,’ he was quoted by Nos tv as saying.
‘Confidence is sliding. The problems are no longer limited to the eurozone or the EU but threaten the US and Japan,’ the minister said. ‘The situation was potentially more dangerous than the banking crisis of 2008.’

For the BBC report on EU ministers’ efforts, click here