German parliament to vote on EFSF on Sept 23

BERLIN: The parliamentary groups in Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition plan to put reforms to the euro zone's financial rescue fund to a vote in the Bundestag on Sept. 23, parliamentary sources said on Friday.

The measure could be voted on in the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, on the same day, as it is also due to meet on Sept. 23, the sources said.

Despite some scepticism within her conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), Merkel is confident that legislation approving changes to the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) will pass.

The opposition Social Democrats (SPD) have said they will vote for the measure.

The parliamentary sources said Merkel's cabinet would have to come up with a preliminary draft law on the EFSF by Aug. 31.

To accelerate the process, the parliamentary groups could then bring their own draft to parliament on Sept. 5, the first day after the summer recess. The process could be accelerated if the government and parliamentary groups introduce their drafts in parallel.

The Berlin government along with governments in Austria, Finland, the Netherlands and Slovakia have said they are confident their parliaments will approve a July 21 deal by euro zone leaders to widen the scope of the 440 billion euro EFSF.

Most legislatures are in summer recess until next month and governments have chosen not to recall them.

In Germany, some sceptical lawmakers in Merkel's CDU are trying to bring forward a party conference to before the vote, to try to exert some control over her European policy but they seem unlikely to prevail. Leaders of her liberal Free Democratic Party coalition partners expect a clear majority of their lawmakers to support the EFSF changes.

Copyright Reuters, 2011