Berlin: German lawmakers approved their country's share of a $1 trillion (Dh3.67 trillion) euro-region bailout in a vote yesterday, allaying market concern that they would balk at approving a second emergency aid package in as many weeks.
The lower house of parliament voted 319 to 73 in favour of contributing as much as 148 billion euros (Dh675.28 billion) to indebted European states to backstop the euro; 195 lawmakers abstained. The upper house, or Bundesrat, also passed the measure, sending it on to President Horst Koehler for signature.
"Every other alternative is much worse and much more dangerous, so we have to do this," Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the lower house, or Bundestag, in Berlin before the vote. "We're not doing this for others, we're doing it for ourselves and for future generations."
The vote came before European finance ministers were meeting for the fifth time in as many weeks as they struggle to forge a united front to the crisis.
