The following paragraph shall be added to Article 136 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union:
‘3.The Member States whose currency is the euro may establish a stability mechanism to be activated if indispensable to safeguard the stability of the euro area as a whole. The granting of any required financial assistance under the mechanism will be made subject to strict conditionality.’.
Member States shall notify the Secretary-General of the Council without delay of the completion of the procedures for the approval of this Decision in accordance with their respective constitutional requirements.
This Decision shall enter into force on 1 January 2013, provided that all the notifications referred to in the first paragraph have been received, or, failing that, on the first day of the month following receipt of the last of the notifications referred to in the first paragraph.
This Decision shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Done at Brussels, 25 March 2011.
For the European Council
The President
H. van Rompuy