By eurotopics | 05.10.2011 | 20:35 ET in Europe

Finns achieve Phyrric victory

Dreamstime

The Finnish government managed to push through its request for additional securities for its contribution to the Greek bailout fund on Tuesday.

But this won’t bring advantages for Finland, the news portal Delfi writes:

“Certainly, here in Estonia people will also ask why we haven’t done the same. But the exception made for Greece is more an issue of domestic politics than a financial policy advantage. Judging by the compromise made with the rest of the Eurozone Finland’s success appears to be a Pyrrhic victory. It will get the additional guarantees, but only under tough conditions. It must pay its contribution to the ESM in the first year and not within five years like the other Eurozone countries, it receives less interest, the guarantee funds are frozen for 15 to 30 years and – most importantly – the guarantees cannot exceed 20 percent of Finland’s contributions to the fund.

… The fact that after showing initial interest the Netherlands backed off from the idea of such additional guarantees demonstrates just how unattractive this system is.”

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