European Union (EU) finance ministers and central bank governors on Saturday pledged support for the reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) quota system, which will favor emerging economies.
"The Slovenian EU presidency strongly supports the adoption of the IMF executive board resolution on the reform of the quota and voting rights system," Slovenian Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk said at the close of the two-day informal meeting of EU finance ministers at the Slovenian resort of Brdo pri Kranju near Ljubljana.
Bajuk explained the reform would "affect a great shift in the representation of dynamic and emerging economies," which will give these countries greater clout in IMF management decisions, the Slovenian news agency STA reported.
Optimistic that the negotiations on this issue will be successful, Bajuk said this would boost the legitimacy of the IMF by securing fair representation of all member countries.
The quota system will be one of the main themes of the meeting of the IMF and World Bank in Washington on April 12 and April 13.
Developing nations have pushed for more say in the IMF, which was founded in the aftermath of World War II, and dominated by powerful industrial nations. The new reform proposals call for developed countries to decrease their voting rights from 59.5 percent to 57.9 percent to the benefit of emerging and developing countries.
European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia labeled the EU decision on quotas as "good support for the role of the IMF in this very difficult period, when a strong IMF is needed."
The changes are part of the package of institutional reforms that the IMF executive board adopted in March. Overall, richer economies will renounce some power in favor of big, emerging economies.
Source: Xinhua
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