Strasbourg, 03/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament is calling for new measures to increase the transparency of export credit agencies (ECA) and to ensure that their activities comply with the EU's core values on external action.
Adopted on Tuesday 2 July by 670 votes to 27, with 15 abstentions, the report of environmentalist Yannick Jadot (Greens/EFA, France) advocates strengthening the role of the European Parliament in monitoring ECA activities so as to ensure that they do not engage in projects which conflict with EU principles (such consolidating democracy, respect for human rights and environmental protection).
The Parliament particularly deplores the fact that the annual reports produced by member states do not allow it to make an assessment as to whether member states' export credit activities are in compliance with the EU's foreign policy goals. MEPs call on the European Commission to provide guidelines for the member states on how to report effectively on their due diligence procedures when initially checking projects that depend on export credits. The projects' potential impact on human rights must be checked, as well as the management of ecological risks. Strict methodology would, in the Parliament's view, enable problematic projects to be identified more easily.
Export credit agencies are governmental institutions or private companies working on behalf of member state governments. They provide long-term export credits or financial guarantees to national exporters in order to cover trade transactions and infrastructure projects in developing countries or emerging market economies, which often include significant commercial and/or political risks. Member states' ECA activities amounted to more than €250 billion in 2011, and involved 260 transactions. (EH/transl.fl)