Prime minister Mark Rutte faced criticism in parliament on Thursday as he updated MPs on last week’s European summit at which eurozone leaders agreed to allow ailing banks to get direct support.

The decision to use the eurozone emergency fund EMS to directly bail out banks will first have to be approved by the upper and lower houses of the Dutch parliament, Rutte told MPs, following questions from Geert Wilders.
EU leaders agreed last week the ESM fund could be used to support banks directly, a move which some MPs say contravenes the earlier agreed treaty to set up the EMS and goes further than Rutte had originally stated he is willing to go.
Unanimous
Rutte said the changes are currently being looked at by EU lawyers and that both houses of parliament will have their say on the measure before the Netherlands casts its definitive vote.
However, that can only happen once legal officials in Brussels have decided if the ESM treaty needs amending, the prime minister said.
In addition, Rutte reiterated his earlier position that direct support for banks could only be implemented once an EU banking supervisory body has been set up and if there is unanimous support, hinting a Dutch veto is still a possibility.
Blockade
However, earlier this week, EU president Herman van Rompuy told the European parliament small individual member states are not in a position to block the formation of the permanent European emergency fund.
Without referring to the Netherlands directly, Van Rompuy said all member states would have to respect the decisions taken at the EU summit in Brussels. ‘Luckily … the decision making process for the new emergency fund ESM is set up in such a way that one country, or in some cases, more countries, are not able to block decisions,’ Van Rompuy said.
The ESM’s decisions are subject to qualified majority voting, meaning they must be approved by at least 85% of votes. The Netherlands is therefore too small to block its decisions.
However, according to the Telegraaf, Rutte believes the 85% rule only applies to support to specific countries, not banks.