Slovakia Makes Europe Wait, Investors Sweat

Slovakia, one of the smallest members of the Eurozone, has Europe waiting and global investors sweating.

Slovakia holds the key to passing the expansion of the Eurozone bailout fund EFSF, which must have the approval all Eurozone members.

Currently, Slovakia is the only member to not approve.

U.S. stocks are mixed after Monday’s big rally, with the S&P 500 dropping 0.28 percent at 10:22 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.37 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite rising 0.18 percent. The European indices and the euro have also declined.

Even though Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radicova strongly supports passing the expansion, she has struggled to garner enough votes.

Her own four-party coalition has refused to pass the bill, with some citing the 7.7 billion euros cost to Slovakia and the fact that bailout recipient countries like Greece are actually richer.

“Slovakia is not responsible for saving the world,” said one Slovak politician, according to Reuters.

To pass the EFSF expansion, Radicova is turning to the largest opposition party to strike a deal. The opposition party is receptive to passing the expansion in exchange for major concessions from Radicova, according to Reuters.

Ultimately, experts expect Radicova to successfully push it through.

“The Slovak vote is definitely putting a layer of uncertainty around the EFSF package but I think this is temporary and political jockeying,” said Brad Bechtel, managing director at foreign exchange services firm Faros Trading.

Credit Agricole also noted that “in theory, there are some options to bypass [the dissent of] one small country but in practice, this would likely lead to an undesirable political mess.”