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October 11, 2011 at 01:14 PM
The Slovak Parliament late Tuesday turned down the country’s participation in expanding the European Financial Stability Facility Fund, the eurozone-wide $600 billion bailout plan meant to shore up its weakest members, especially Greece.
Slovakia was the last member of the eurozone’s 17 member states to vote on participating in the plan, which was approved in July by the leaders of the eurozone countries, and is the only member state to not approve the plan, though a second vote may take place at an unspecified time, according to the BBC. Such a vote is now tied up with the future of the coalition government.
European markets had held their breath on Tuesday in anticipation of the historic vote; there are expectations that the markets may decline on the news, which some observers said might threaten the future of the currency. The major European stock indexes were down slightly on Tuesday, though Germany’s DAX was up 0.3%, while the euro fell after posting a strong gain on Monday.
