Brussels, 26/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday in Brussels, the European Parliament adopted the report of Mario Mantovani (Forza Italia) on the debt in ACP and some of the poorest countries in the world (400 for, 39 against and 26 abstentions). This gives the go-ahead for a speeding-up and deepening of the process in reducing the public debt of the least advanced ACP countries whose governments respect human rights, the principles of good governance and which make eradicating poverty their priority. In practice, the Parliament supports the idea that the countries that are effected, cross the "decision threshold" within the framework of the World Bank/IMF initiative that Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC in which the Union contributes EUR 1 billion as part of its participation) and immediately benefit from the total liquidation of debt servicing linked to the special EDF and EIB loans agreed at the first three Lomé Conventions. The objective of this additional gesture is to stop the spiral of impoverishment that debt servicing produces, which very poor countries cannot support. Resources made available by governments thanks to this supplementary action are expected to be directed towards social projects, emphasised Parliament.
The report adopted in its current form (see EUROPE 6 March) is Parliament's response to the Commission communication on what position the Community should adopt within the ACP/EU Council of Ministers on the outstanding balance of special loans that the least advanced ACP countries are still expected to pay off once all the other HIPC debt reduction measures are applied.
Amendments introduced by the Greens/EFA and NGL, requesting the total abolition of the debt, were rejected. According to Didier Rod (Greens, France), cancelling the debt would allow funding for countries in the South that could be managed by a social development and ecologically sustainable fund, democratically controlled by the local populations. Given that it is the people who suffer, another Green/EFA amendment demanded that no loans be granted in the future without the approval of the democratically elected Parliaments of the countries effected. This amendment was not adopted.