A coalition of Finland’s major political parties has reached an agreement to support  the European Union backed bailout for Portugal, said Jyrki Katainen, Finland prime minister elect.

Last week Portugal closed negociations with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund for a three-year 78 billion-euro (US$116 billion bailout.

Finland is the only EU country that needs parliament approval before agreeing on European financial matters including requests for bailouts. Previous EU bailout packages have met the criticism of the nationalist True Finns party, which opposes such measures.

Timo Soini, the leader of the populist True Finns party had said his party will oppose the bailout for Portugal. The True Finns hold 39 of the Finland parliament’s 200 seats.

EU finance ministers are due to meet in Brussels, on May 16-17, to approve the bailout package for Portugal which endorsement must be unanimous.

Portugal needs to have the bailout package in place in order to repay about 5.0 billion euros (US$7.2 billion) in debt by June 15.

Finland – what’s next for the bailouts

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