Centre Continues to Oppose EFSF Accession
Parliament's Centre Party faction said it will not back accession to the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), saying that such a commitment would be beyond Estonia's means and needs a substantial parliamentary debate instead of a fast-track ratification.
"We do consider European solidarity and cohesion important," said Centre faction leader Jüri Ratas. "But a line has to be drawn at some point. We cannot allow huge commitments to be imposed on us even in the name of solidarity. In three years, austerity measures and price hikes have quelled the Estonians' purchase power and at present, offering guarantees to better-off countries is clearly beyond our means," he said.
Ratas said that deciding a fate of 2 billion euros in just 2 days would be irresponsible. "We have found that the government has assumed financial commitments without explaining the situation to the taxpayer." The amount is one-third of Estonia's national budget, Ratas said, comparing the 1.995-billion-euro loan guarantee to the 1.7 billion allocated for social spending in next year's budget.
Ratas said that the accession legislation should include a clause which would make every loan issued through the EFSF subject to ratification by Parliament. Signing the deal means that one day and the state would have to produce - to borrow - real money to support countries wealthier than Estonia, whereas the mechanism of repayment by indebted member states is "very obscure," Ratas said.
Erkki Sivonen