Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-27-Speech-3-198"
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"en.20041027.10.3-198"2
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".
Mr President, one of the most important elements of the millennium objective for development, which consists of setting up a worldwide partnership for development, is permanent debt relief. As well as national and international measures, a broad solution should be found for the debt problem of the developing countries so as to make debts bearable in the long term. In accordance with the consensus of Monterrey, which was approved by the Heads of State or Government of the members of the United Nations in March 2002, the EU recognises that permanent debt funding is of the essence for freeing up resources for private and public investments, and that the relief of foreign debt can play a crucial role when resources are freed up for activities that promote sustainable growth and development.
Achieving the millennium objectives for development is a core objective of the European Union and, in broader terms, of the international communities. The commitments into which the EU Member States entered at the Monterrey Conference reflect the Union’s leading role in international efforts to accomplish the millennium objectives and should find expression in the full range of the EU’s policy measures and in its decisions concerning the allocation of financial resources. In its conclusions of 14 November 2002, the Council confirmed its willingness to, and I quote ‘continue its efforts to restore the sustainability of debts in the context of the strengthened Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, so that the developing countries, particularly the poorest among them, can continue to pursue growth and development without being hindered by the burden of unsustainable debts’.
The EU is also looking into the possibility of taking the present HIPC initiative one step further. During the high-level dialogue on development funding, which was held in New York in October 2003 in the framework of the 58th UN General Assembly, the EU urged all donor and creditor countries which had not done so, to take on their share of bilateral debt relief and to contribute to the multilateral funding of the HIPC initiative. The EU also emphasised that it is of great importance for the IMF and the World Bank to issue regular reports on whether their Member States meet their HIPC obligations, in particular with regard to Article 4 on control. It was also mooted that during the official bilateral debt rearrangement in the Club of Paris, consideration should also be given to debtor countries which meet their HIPC obligations as creditors. During the dialogue, the EU also declared itself prepared to talk with the international financial institutions and the other donors about possible changes to the way the requirements of additional debt relief, or topping up, are calculated at the end, on behalf of those HIPC countries whose debt burden is considered untenable at that time due to serious exogenous shocks. It also showed willing to study ways in which the financial gap can be plugged and at the same time to bring about a fair reduction in the burden.
According to the EU, HIPC countries, as well as donor and creditor countries, are all responsible for permanent debt relief in the long term. The question whether it would be a useful initiative on the part of the European Commission to set up a debt department, as the World Bank did recently, does not fall within my remit, as you will understand, but within that of the Commission."@en1
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