HOT: EU Readies $620 ESM Rescue Fund for July

Following Friday’s carnage (tables from Bloomberg), European governments have floated a target date for the expanded bailout mechanism.

From the Bloomberg,

The European Union is targeting July 9 as the start date for its permanent euro-area rescue fund, the 500 billion-euro ($620 billion) European Stability Mechanism, an EU official said.

Parliaments across the 17-nation currency union must ratify the fund before it becomes available to counter the financial crisis spawned in Greece. Until it receives 90 percent of its expected capital allotment, officials must turn to the temporary European Financial Stability Facility, a 440 billion-euro fund with 240 billion euros available.

The start date depends mainly on the outcome in Germany, where lawmakers may vote as late as the first week of July. Considering the national approvals required, euro officials hope the July 9 target date will hold, said the official, who declined to be named because the planning isn’t public.

The ESM is the centerpiece of Europe’s $1 trillion firewall to stave off financial contagion from the debt crisis that has wreaked havoc on markets and pushed Greece, Portugal and Ireland to seek bailouts. The ESM represents the euro area’s capacity for further aid programs, since the rest of the firewall is made up of 300 billion euros already committed to the rescue effort.

It’s been a self-reinforcing and seeming interminable bailout-crisis-bailout-crisis feedback loop.

As the French would say “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose”.

The key question is will the market see this as “enough” to temporarily stanch the hemorrhage? We will see.