Strasbourg, 17/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - Adopting a report on Tuesday by 529 to 76 with 31 abstentions on the strategic review of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), MEPs called for better coordination of EU positions at the IMF, confirming the support expressed in February in a debate on the own initiative report by French Socialist Benoit Hamon (see EUROPE 9135), and encouraging the IMF to improve governance. The EP wants IMF activity to be focussed on its original tasks of maintaining macroeconomic stability, and wants the voting system to be revised. The current system does not take enough account of the poorest countries (African countries, for example, account for a quarter of the IMF's members but only have 4% of its votes), explain the MEPs, wanting the decision-making power to be more representative of the global economic situation. The MEPs want the EU to play a role in this debate and want Member States to coordinate their views better at the IMF. Over time, they should aim at a 'single constituency' for the eurozone first of all and later for all the EU. The EP wants the Presidency of the ECOFIN Council and the European Commission to be involved in 'coherent EU representation' monitored by the EP. At present, Member States are dispersed and the EU's voice does not carry the way it should, argue the MEPs, avoiding use of the term 'single representation'.