Image: YLE
The Constitutional Law Committee now sees no obstacle to Finnish participation in the ESM.
The Parliament's Constitutional Law Committee has given the green light to Finland's participation in the EU's permanent bailout fund.
With new wording under a compromise deal struck this week between Finland and the EU, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) model no longer violates the Finnish constitution, the committee declared on Friday.
The Parliament's Grand Committee is to make a final decision on Finland's role on Monday. The 25-member committee, which includes MPs from all parties in the legislature, holds special responsibility for EU policy.
MPs have voiced concern that the crisis fund could complicate national budget decisions if it balloons out of control.
Finland had stubbornly rejected the use of majority voting in loan decisions, after the Constitutional Law Committee declared that such a practice would violate the Finnish constitution. In effect, Finland -- which boasts one of the eurozone's strongest credit ratings -- could have been forced to take on further financial burden without its own assent.
On Monday, EU finance ministers agreed on a compromise over voting procedures within the ESM, allowing Finns will be allowed to opt out of future rescue loans. The mechanism will maintain an emergency reserve fund for use in case of non-unanimous decisions.YLE
