(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) The Eurozone finance ministers decided early Tuesday to offer Spain 30 billion euros ($37 billion) to help its banking sector.
After nine hours of emergency talks in Brussels, the ministers said the money would be available by the end of July.
It was also agreed that a 2013 deadline for Spain to cut its budget deficit to the EU limit of 3% could be extended by one year.
"We are aiming at reaching a formal agreement in the second half of July, taking into account national parliamentary procedures, allowing for a first disbursement of 30 bilion euros by the end of the month to be mobilized as a contingency in case of urgent needs in the Spanish banking sector," Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker said.
"There will be specific conditions for specific banks, and the supervision of the financial sector overall will be strengthened," he added.
"We are convinced that this conditionality will succeed in addressing the remaining weakness in the Spanish banking sector."
Juncker also said that Madrid should implement measures needed to bring its public finances into line with EU norms.
Eurozone countries agreed in June to lend up to 100 billion euros to support Spain's banks.
In a news conference at the end of Monday's marathon meeting a number of appointments were also announced.
The finance ministers' conclusions will be submitted to a meeting of all 27 EU finance ministers later on Tuesday.
Earlier on Monday, the yield on Spanish 10-year bonds - which are taken as a strong indicator of the interest rate the government would have to pay to borrow money - rose above 7%, while Italian bond yields rose to 6.1%.
Yields above 7% are considered to be unsustainable in the long term.
Among the key agreements from the 29 June summit were moves towards a banking union with the European Central Bank (ECB) acting as a supervisor and allowing European bailout funds to buy bonds to try to reduce countries' borrowing costs.
But since the summit, there have been signs that Finland and the Netherlands would oppose the use of bailout funds in this way.
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