European finance ministers are reaching into the savings accounts of a nation to backstop a ‚10 billion bailout for Cyprus, they announced yesterday.

For the first time in the euro zone’s five-year-old financial crisis, depositors may be forced to pay for the countries bailout.

Savers will be hit with a 9.9 percent tax on accounts greater than ‚100,000, those with less will be charged at a 6.75 percent rate. The one-time tax is expected to raise ‚5.8 billion for the near-bankrupt country.

“This decision should not be compared to the ideal, but to the very real possibility that much more money could have been lost in bankruptcy of the banking system or indeed of the country,” Cypriot Finance Minister Michalis Sarris told reporters. with Post wire services