Eurozone finance ministers on Monday agreed on the size of the permanent rescue fund, promising to provide 500 billion euros (about 670 billion U.S. dollars) to eurozone countries that fall prey to the debt crisis after the current rescue fund expires in 2013.
Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters after a regular meeting of the bloc's 17 finance ministers that the ministers agreed on the volume of 500 billion euros under the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and it is subject to regular revision at least once in two years.
And the amount needs to be the effective lending capacity of the ESM, Juncker said.
The eurogroup chief said that the International Monetary Fund ( IMF) will be involved in the ESM, but the amount that it will contribute is yet to be decided. And non-euro area countries can also take part in the future rescue mechanism on a voluntary basis as in the aid package to Ireland.
The ministers also discussed options concerning strengthening the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the temporary rescue fund which will expire in 2013, but no agreement has been reached.
Juncker said that reinforcing the EFSF is part of the comprehensive package to deal with the debt crisis, stressing " nothing is agreed until everything is agreed."
At a summit on Feb. 4, EU leaders agreed to adopt a comprehensive anti-crisis package at the summit in March.
Apart from reinforcing the current temporary bailout fund and paving the way for a permanent replacement, the main elements of the comprehensive package also include an agreement on stronger economic governance, stress tests in the banking sector, implementation of measures to strengthen budgetary positions and growth prospects in the eurozone as well as existing programs in Greece and Ireland.
President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy said on Monday that leaders of the eurozone will hold an informal meeting on March 11 to look at ways to increase competitiveness of the bloc./.