Portugal first to ratify EU budget pact
Baku, April 14 (AZERTAC). PORTUGAL becomes on Friday the first EU country to ratify a pact to make budget discipline the main rampart against debt crises, if its parliament passes the measures as expected.
In a vote late morning, the parliament is also expected to approve the European Stability Mechanism, a firewall fund and the second new line of defence against debt contagion.
Portugal is one of three eurozone countries to be rescued by the EU and the International Monetary Fund as alarm over the state of public finances pushed up borrowing rates on international bond markets to unsustainable levels first for Greece and then Ireland.
Although Portugal is set to be the first country to ratify the new rules, it is also one of the eurozone countries having the greatest difficulty in meeting the targets.
Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, arguing strongly in favour of the pact in a speech on Thursday to parliament, where he has a comfortable centre-right majority, said that the budget pact "represents our refusal to repeat the errors of the past."
The Socialist party, the main opposition force, has said that it will vote in favour so as not to undermine the credibility of the country.
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