European Union finance ministers approved a proposal here Tuesday for raising the ceiling for assistance to each member state in financial difficulty.
The EU's executive Commission made the proposal on Oct. 31 to raise the total amount of loans available from the current 12 billion euros (about 15.1 billion U.S. dollars )to 25 billion euros (31.5 billion dollars).
"The higher ceiling is justified by the evolution of the international economic situation and by the large number of member states currently outside the euro area," said a press release from the meeting of EU finance ministers.
The EU has expanded to accommodate 12 new member states since the facility was created in 2002, many of which outside the euro area.
On the same day, the EU's Executive Commission welcomed the approval by the ministers of the proposal to raise the overall ceiling in a regulation providing for medium-term financial assistance to Balances of Payments (BoP).
The new regulation foresees that the EU can grant mutual assistance to a member state outside the euro area "in difficulties or seriously threatened with difficulties as regards its balance of payments, either as a result of an overall disequilibrium in its balance of payments or as a result of the type of currency at its disposal."
Source:Xinhua
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