Slovakia approves expanded eurozone bailout fund

Описание: (13 Oct 2011) SHOTLIST
1. Pull out from a close shot of the Slovakian country symbol to a wide of the Slovak parliament
2. Tight shot of a lawmaker voting
3. Close of screen showing vote totals
4. SOUNDBITE: (Slovak) Iveta Radicova, Slovak Prime Minister:
"I am really satisfied that the bailout was approved and that Slovakia has returned to the map of Europe and is viewed as a credible partner."
5. Mid of a lawmaker sitting in parliament
6. SOUNDBITE: (Slovak) Robert Fico, Chairman of the Smer-Social Democracy party:
"After 48 hours we approved a very important document, a very important law. And the other side of the coin is that Slovakia won't be considered the black sheep, the black hole, and as an irresponsible country with no credibility."
7. Close of TV camera
8. SOUNDBITE: (Slovak) Richard Sulik, leader of the Freedom and Solidarity party:
"The opposition today in efforts to please Brussels threw everything overboard - pre-election promises and agreements by the government. They didn't have a problem with blackmail. Basically we've seen that they are willing to do anything, bend over to do anything to fulfil the wishes of Brussels. I am really sorry."
9. Wide of parliament
STORYLINE
Slovakian lawmakers on Thursday approved expanding the size and powers of the EU bailout fund, overcoming an earlier rejection and removing the last hurdle to the fund's use as the continent's main weapon against the debt crisis.
Slovakia is the last of the 17 eurozone nations to approve boosting the 440 (b) billion euro (600 billion US dollar) bailout fund, called the European Financial Stability Facility.
The fund will be able to lend quickly to governments before they are in a full-blown crisis and help them boost banks' health.
The country's parliament had rejected the changes to the bailout fund on Tuesday because a junior coalition partner, the Freedom and Solidarity party, was against it.
In a desperate effort to force that party to vote in favour, Prime Minister Iveta Radicova had tied the vote on the bailout fund to a confidence vote in the government.
When the vote failed, her 1-year-old government collapsed.
The main opposition party, Smer-Social Democracy, then agreed to help the outgoing coalition approve the expanded fund in a second vote in exchange for early elections.
Parliament voted Thursday in favour of holding early elections in March, with 143 in favour and three against.
Just a half hour later, they approved boosting the bailout fund - 114 were in favour.
Only 76 votes were needed.
Radicova welcomed the result, saying "I am really satisfied that the bailout was approved and that Slovakia has returned to the map of Europe".
Because big eurozone decisions require unanimous support, Slovakia's earlier rejection of the fund's new powers threatened to hold up the whole bloc's efforts to tame its two-year-old debt crisis.
Slovakia, a country of 5.5 million people, will contribute 7.7 (b) billion euros (10.6 billion US dollars) in guarantees to back up the bailout fund's lending capacities.

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