To support the sustainable development of developing EU partner countries and achieve the 2030 universal sustainable development goals, the debt situation of these countries must be made more sustainable, said the European Parliament’s development committee in Brussels on Tuesday 20 March.
In adopting the own initiative report by Charles Goerens (ALDE, Luxembourg) by the wide margin of 17 votes to 9, MEPs set out their recommendations on how the EU should go about this task, including by not granting loans to manifestly corrupt governments.
“This money mostly serves a political class that doesn’t care much about its country’s development. The report on improving the sustainability of developing country debt aims to put an end to this practice by proposing to deprive from any judicial protection creditors who might lend money to states whose Parliaments have not approved this loan”, said Goerens.
MEPs argue that legislation should be drawn up to prevent the granting of loans to governments mired in corruption.
They recommend that the EU support the implementation of the principles defined by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for a responsible credit policy, which highlight the co-responsibility of creditors and borrowers, and the necessary parliamentary oversight in public financing operations. And they endorse the guiding principles on foreign debt and human rights formulated by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The committee calls on the European Commission to draw up a strategy, designed to save developing countries from excessive debt specifying the rights, duties and responsibilities of all concerned.
It argues that the EU and its member states need to adopt a regulation based on Belgian legislation seeking to prevent debt by vulture funds specialising in buying up debts for low prices and then squeezing out as much money as possible from the developing countries through judicial proceedings.
Putting in place an intergovernmental body for tax cooperation under an UN umbrella is another of the MEPs’ recommendations.
The Goerens report will be put to the European Parliament in April’s plenary session. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)