Portugal, which received an international bailout last year, became on Friday the second EU country to ratify a European Union pact tightening budget discipline after Greece. The country's parliament approved the pact, the bloc's main rampart against debt crises, by 204 votes to 24, with two abstentions. The assembly also approved as expected the European Stability Mechanism, a firewall fund and the second new line of defence against debt contagion.
Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, whose centre-right coalition government has a majority in parliament, argued strongly in favour of the pact, saying it "represents our refusal to repeat the errors of the past." The main opposition Socialist Party said it voted in favour so as not to undermine the credibility of the country even though, like left-wing parties across Europe it faults the pact for not giving enough attention to growth and job creation.
"It is in the name of the option for Europe chosen by Portugal that we shall vote in favour," the party's leader Antonio Jose Seguro said before the vote. Greece, which also received a bailout, was the first EU country to ratify the pact at the end of March.
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