Malta's contribution and guarantees to the eurozone's bailout fund will increase  to a total of €704.33 million, according to the published Participation and Guarantees under the European Financial Stability Facility (Amendment) Bill, which will be discussed by Parliament tomorrow (Wednesday).

The Bill will be introduced by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, back from a eurozone Finance Ministers' meeting in Luxembourg. The ministers put off a decision on releasing the latest tranche of Greece's financial bailout.

Greece is expected to go into default in November unless it receives the €8-billion bailout instalment. Inspectors from the so-called "troika" of the European Union, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB) have been in Athens to examine the government's efforts to reduce its deficit. The tranche is only to be released if the inspectors are satisfied that Greece is doing all it can to reduce its debt.

Malta is one of the last three eurozone member states to approve its contribution, the others being Slovakia and the Netherlands. 

Changes to the fund have to be approved by all 17 eurozone member-states.

Under the new terms, the EFSF's lending capacity would be increased to €440 billion and it would have new powers to buy up bonds of shaky economies or lend to governments before they reach full-blown crisis.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.