European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism
Funding programme of the European Commission
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Through European Union, S&P Global Ratings and Eurozone
The Commission fund, backed by all 27 European Union member states, has the authority to raise up to €60 billion. The EFSM is rated AAA by Fitch, Moody's and Standard & Poor's. The EFSM has been operational since 10 May 2010.
Programmes
Irish programme
Under the programme agreed between the Eurozone and the government of Ireland, the EFSM wil provide loans of 22.4 billion euros between 2010 and 2013. As of January 2012 the EFSM had provided 15.4 bn. Further funds have also been provided through the EFSF
Portuguese programme
Under the financial assistance programme agreed between the Eurozone and the government of Portugal, the EFSM provided loans of €24.3 billion to Portugal between 2011 and 2014. Further funds have also been provided through the EFSF and by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Greece
In July 2015 the European Commission proposed to re-activate the EFSM to provide financing for a bridging loan to the government of Greece, in order to meet its immediate commitments including loan repayments to the IMF and ECB. In August, the loan of around €7 billion was fully repaid by Greece.
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Operations
2011 inaugural issuance
On 5 January 2011, the European Union, under the European Financial Stabilization Mechanism, successfully placed in the capital markets a €5 billion issue of bonds as part of the financial support package agreed for Ireland. The issuance spread was fixed at mid swap plus 12 basis points. This implies borrowing costs for EFSM of 2.59%.
Subsequent issuances
- €4.75 billion 10 yr bond issued on 24 May 2011
- €4.75 billion 5 yr bond issued on 25 May 2011
- €5.0 billion 10yr bond issued on 14 Sept. 2011
- €4.0 billion 15yr bond issued on 22 Sept. 2011
- €1.1 billion 7yr bond issued on 29 Sept. 2011
- €3.0 billion 30 yr bond issued on 9 Jan. 2012
Bailout programs for EU members (since 2008)
The table below provides an overview of the financial composition of all bailout programs being initiated for EU member states, since the 2008 financial crisis. EU member states outside the eurozone (marked with yellow in the table) have no access to the funds provided by EFSF/ESM, but can be covered with rescue loans from EU's Balance of Payments programme (BoP), IMF and bilateral loans (with an extra possible assistance from the Worldbank/EIB/EBRD if classified as a development country). Since October 2012, the ESM as a permanent new financial stability fund to cover any future potential bailout packages within the eurozone, has effectively replaced the now defunct GLF + EFSM + EFSF funds. Whenever pledged funds in a scheduled bailout program were not transferred in full, the table has noted this by writing "Y out of X".
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Repayments
Portugal
The Portuguese government repaid early €2 billion of its EFSM loans in 2022 and 2023. Another early repayment amounting to €2.5 billion took place on 23 December 2025 : following this repayment, €19.8 billion of EFSM loans to Portugal remain outstanding.