"Solidarity in the eurozone is all-for-all solidarity,” German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble declared this week. This imperative formula was addressed to Slovakia, the last country in the eurozone to drag its feet on lending €800 million to Greece, a richer but overindebted country, and to pay up its €4.37 billion contribution to the €440 billion loan guarantees for the euro Stabilisation Fund set up last month.

Why is Bratislava holding out? For one thing, because Iveta Radičová’s new government does not want to feel bound by its predecessor’s promises. For another, because the contribution system seems unfair to them: each country’s contribution depends on its share of European Central Bank capital, which in turn is determined by gross domestic product and population size. On that basis, Slovakia, the last country to join the eurozone (in January 2009), but also the poorest, has to pay three times as much as Luxembourg, the EU tax haven.

So, long live solidarity! After several days’ discussion in Brussels, the Slovak government knuckled under on 15 July and agreed to join the Fund. But it is still loath to lend Greece money. Finance minister Ivan Mikloš feels it would be a mistake for “a country whose per capita GDP doesn’t even come to 72% of the European average to have to help the richer countries”.  In Slovakia, according to the Reuters agency, minimum wage is €308 per month, and average pay, at €725, is actually less than minimum wage in Greece, €863. Two-thirds of the Slovaks polled are against bailing out the Greeks.

Now we are going to see how many days it takes Brussels to convince Bratislava to lend Greece the money, even if the repayment is not guaranteed. But perhaps Slovakia, unpleasantly surprised today by the privileges of belonging to the European elite club, will someday appreciate forced solidarity in the EU: the day it has a hard time paying off the loans it has taken out to bail out Greece.

Martina Bulaková