German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble urged parliamentarians to vote for his government's 22.4-billion-euro (28.5 billion dollars) contribution to the Greece bailout Friday, saying the future of the European Union itself was at stake, DPA reported.
"We must defend our common European currency...and at the same time defend the whole European project," Schaeuble said.
The German parliament, or Bundestag, is expected to pass the bill later on Friday, as European shares tumbled amid deepening concerns that the Greek debt crisis will engulf other euro members.