Oversight Of International Monetary Fund And World Bank Policies

EDM number 952 in 2004-05, proposed by Claire Curtis-Thomas on 17/03/2005.

That this House notes that 2005 is the 60th anniversary year of the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank - the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs); recognises that the IMF and World Bank have voiced a commitment to ensuring that individual countries determine their own economic policies; further notes that key economic policies continue to be imposed by both the World Bank and IMF as conditions for receiving debt relief and new loans, with the Boards of the BWIs retaining the power of veto over all measures including those in poverty reduction strategy papers; calls upon the BWIs and their principal shareholders to ensure that the democratically elected representatives of recipient nations are the final arbiters of all economic policies in their countries; believes that it is vital that national parliaments in recipient nations have the right and obligation to be fully involved in the development and scrutiny of all measures associated with BWI activities within their borders, and to hold the final power of ratification; and further believes that ensuring the primacy of sovereign national parliaments in this way will improve implementation of measures to reduce poverty, enhance good governance and foster democracy.

This motion has been signed by a total of 36 MPs.