The Eurogroup decided among other things, to make the paid-in capital of the ESM available more quickly than initially foreseen in the ESM Treaty, in respect of national procedures. In addition, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) will be the main instrument to finance new programmes as from July 2012. The EFSF will only remain active in financing programmes that have started before that date.

The Eurogroup decided, in order to further improve market confidence and in accordance with the agreement reached at the Euro Summit on 9 December 2011 and reiterated on 2 March 2012, to raise the current overall ceiling for ESM/EFSF lending, as defined in the ESM Treaty, to €700 billion. As of mid-2013, the maximum lending volume of ESM will be €500 billion. The combined lending ceiling of the ESM and the EFSF will continue to be set at €700 billion.

In addition, European leaders who met at the Eurogroup decided that the paid-in capital of the ESM will be made available more quickly than initially foreseen in the ESM Treaty, in respect of national procedures. Thus, two tranches of capital will be paid in 2012, a first one in July, a second one by October. Another two tranches will be paid in 2013 and a final tranche in the first half of 2014. The payment of the capital will be further accelerated if needed to maintain a 15% ratio between the paid-in capital and the outstanding amount of ESM issuances.

On the other hand, €49 billion out of the EFSM and €53 billion out of the bilateral Greek loan facility have already been paid out to support current programme countries. All together the euro area is mobilising an overall firewall of approximately €800 billion, more than $1 trillion. Moreover, euro area Member States have committed to provide €150 billion additional bilateral contributions to the IMF.