As part of efforts to bolster eurozone
firewalls, payments into the currency bloc's new bailout fund will be
completed by "the first half of 2014," three years earlier than
originally planned, euro area finance ministers announced on Friday.
The European Stability Mechanism (ESM), due to be launched in
July, is to have a 500-billion-euro ($667 billion) capacity.
But that firepower will only be reached once eurozone governments
provide 80 billion euros in hard cash to back up the ESM's reserves.
The original plan was for payments to be staggered over five
years, meaning that the ESM would have only reached its headline
500-billion-euro target in 2017.
Instead, the first two instalments will be made in 2012; two more
in 2013; and a final one by June 2014, the Eurogroup panel of
eurozone finance ministers said in a statement.
