On 2 February 2012, in Brussels, the Treaty establishing the European Stability Mechanism was signed by the 17 euro-area States: Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland. A single original; authentic texts: Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Maltese, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish. Article 46: the depositary is the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. The version signed on 11 July 2011 was replaced so as to incorporate the decisions of 21 July and 9 December 2011.

Article 1: the Contracting Parties establish an international financial institution, the ESM. Article 31: its seat and principal office shall be in Luxembourg; it may establish a liaison office in Brussels. Article 3: the purpose is to mobilise funding and provide stability support under strict conditionality to ESM Members experiencing, or threatened by, severe financing problems, if indispensable to safeguard the financial stability of the euro area as a whole. This is not a bailout handbook.

Article 8, in the text signed by the 17: authorised capital stock of EUR 700 000 million, of which EUR 80 000 million paid-in; shares of EUR 100 000; each Member’s liability is limited to its portion. Article 11: the contribution key follows, with corrections, the ECB capital key in Article 29 of the ESCB Statute. Recital (6): the initial maximum lending volume is EUR 500 000 million, including outstanding EFSF stability support.

Article 4: a Board of Governors, a Board of Directors, a Managing Director; a quorum of two-thirds; an emergency procedure requiring 85% of the votes cast where the Commission and the ECB both conclude that delay would threaten the economic and financial sustainability of the euro area. Article 5: the Governors are as a rule the finance ministers; the President of the Euro Group may chair. Article 7: the Managing Director, a five-year term, renewable once.

Article 12: stability support is subject to strict conditionality, ranging from a macro-economic adjustment programme to continuous respect of pre-established eligibility conditions; the instruments are those in Articles 14 to 18. As of 1 January 2013, collective action clauses shall be included in all new euro-area government securities with maturity above one year. Article 13: a request to the Chairperson of the Board of Governors; assessment by the Commission, in liaison with the ECB and, wherever possible, the IMF; a memorandum of understanding. Country programmes are not described here.

Article 47: ratification, approval or acceptance. Article 48: the Treaty enters into force when instruments have been deposited by signatories whose initial subscriptions represent no less than 90% of Annex II. Consilium records 27 September 2012, with Germany’s deposit. Latvia and Lithuania acceded later; their language versions became authentic upon accession. Article 44: accession after the Council decision abrogating a euro derogation under Article 140(2) TFEU.

Cover: the ESM headquarters in Luxembourg, provided for in Article 31 — signature was in Brussels; this is not the signing room. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

For context: Treaty establishing the European Stability Mechanism. The text: Treaty establishing the European Stability Mechanism.