Скачать или смотреть Finnish Parliament votes to back EU's financial bailout of Portugal

(13 May 2011)
1. Wide of parliament building with fountain in foreground
2. Wide of grand committee meeting room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Erkki Tuomioja, Chairman of parliamentary grand committee:
"Well, I would of course hope that nobody would have any trouble, that this would be accepted by everyone. But I suspect that the most difficult issues, actually, since we are talking about a unilateral decision by Finland not to give any new guarantees unless we have full collateral for those, so that eliminates the future risks for Finland."
4. Cutaway of journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Erkki Tuomioja, Chairman of parliamentary grand committee:
"The real issues are: how do we reform the international financial system. And we have the issue of a transaction tax on the table. Finland will be very active in trying to promote this also on a European level to begin with if we do not find enough support for a global (initiative). So I would assume that these might be the most difficult issues, and they are certainly long-term issues."
6. Wide of grand committee members
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Paavo Arhinmaki, Head of the Left Wing Alliance political party:
"The thing is, in Greece, in Ireland, in Portugal, these packages don't help people, they help banks. And the thing is, for example in Portugal, this majority said that Portugal should privatise hard, like electrical companies, airports, airline companies and so on. So it's very difficult for Portugal coming up. And it's normal people of Portugal, like it's normal people in Greece and Ireland, which have to pay the bills of the banks and those who have played the financial game."
8. Mid of Tuomioja and Arhinmaki at meeting
STORYLINE:
Finland's Parliament approved a European bailout for Portugal on Friday, clearing the way for finance ministers of the wider 17-nation eurozone to approve the rescue plan next week.
In a 15-5 vote with five abstentions, the parliamentary grand committee backed the plan, authorising Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen to approve the aid package at Monday's meeting of finance ministers in Brussels.
The ministers there will discuss the finer details of Portugal's bailout plan, with each country offering proposals and certain conditions, before rubber-stamping the deal.
Because Finland is part of the eurozone, its approval is required for any rescue measures for cash-strapped eurozone states.
That approval was threatened by Finnish politics after a surge in support for the nationalist, anti-bailout True Finns party in the country's 17 April election.
On Thursday, the True Finns pulled out of government formation talks saying the party could not be part of a government that backs EU bailouts.
Finland's two largest parties, meanwhile, had agreed on their position on the bailout, making the outcome of Friday's vote predictable.
At Friday's parliamentary grand committee, its chairman - and former foreign minister - Erkki Tuomioja said he thought the area which European partners would have difficulty aligning with Finland's position included on collateral issues for any new loan guarantees (such as stakes in national companies) and on international banking reform.
Tuomioja also highlighted the issue of transaction tax as a potential sticking point among Finland's interlocutors, saying Finland would be "very active in trying to promote this also on a European level to begin with if we do not find enough support for a global (initiative)."
In Brussels today, the EU welcomed the Finnish vote.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...