Wall Street Journal
October 13, 2011
It appears that the world can take its eyes off Bratislava.
Slovakia's largest opposition party, after a bit of parliamentary gamesmanship, cleared the way Wednesday for the country to endorse changes to the €440 billion ($600 billion) euro-zone bailout fund that European political leaders have deemed essential to the bloc's efforts to beat back the sovereign-debt crisis.
Slovakia was the last holdout among the 17 nations that use the euro, and the Slovak agreement will end months of discussion about bolstering the fund. It isn't the end of the story: The crisis has swelled in the meantime, and talks are under way about making the fund bigger yet.
But for now, the ratification in Bratislava of the bailout-fund changes, expected formally as soon as Thursday, brings one quick result: The fund will be increased in size by about €200 billion.
The agreement also gives the euro zone's leaders a variety of new ways to use the fund—though not all will be ready immediately, and there remains fundamental debate about how and when to employ them: To what extent, for instance, should the fund be used to help countries recapitalize their banks?
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