(http://yle.fi/ecepic/archive/00454/9_12_2011_Jutta_Urp_454847b.jpg)
Finnish Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen on Friday said Finland would leave the EU's bailout fund if decisions on it are no longer made unanimously. She said Finland will drop out if a Franco-German push to take decisions on future bailouts by a supermajority goes ahead.
Urpilainen said the government's decision on the matter was unanimous.
Finland has maintained that it cannot agree to transitioning from decision making by unanimous consent to a system where voting rights are based on holdings in the European Central Bank. The Franco-German proposal would allow countries holding 85 percent of the European Central Bank's capital to push through decisions on the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).
France and Germany have lobbied for qualified majority voting to avoid being taken hostage by small countries, such as Finland.
On Thursday, a Finnish parliamentary committee ruled that agreeing to supermajority voting is unconstitutional and encroaches on Finnish sovereignty.
Historic summitEU leaders met in Brussels on Thursday and Friday in an effort to end market turmoil which has plagued the bloc for two years. All 17 eurozone states and six others agreed to stricter budget rules at marathon negotiations in Brussels that lasted into the early morning hours on Friday.
YLE, Reuters