The Netherlands cannot block emergency fund plans: Brussels

Tuesday 03 July 2012

The Netherlands and other small sceptical member states are not in a position to block the formation of the permanent European emergency fund ESM, EU president Herman van Rompuy told the European parliament on Tuesday.

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 last week.

'The decisions of the European Council were unanimous and now it is time for all member states to take responsibility for their enactment,' Van Rompuy is quoted as saying by the Financieele Dagblad.

Majority voting

'Luckily ... the decision making process for the new emergency fund ESM is set up so 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 and Finland are therefore too small to block its decisions.

Finland has already said it does not think it a good idea to allow the ESM to buy up secondary debt and has suggested joining forces with the Netherlands, which also has its doubts, the Financieele Dagblad said.

After last week’s summit, Rutte told reporters the decision to buy up debt could only be taken by a unanimous decision, and would be subject to tough conditions.

Finns, Dutch cast first doubt on EU summit deal

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