Brussels, 13/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Parliament , Hans-Gert Pöttering, announced on Thursday 8 May in Brussels that a written declaration on micro-credit had been adopted. The text was submitted by Jamila Madeira (PES, Portugal), Ana Maria Gomes (PES, Portugal), Anna Záborská (EPP-ED, Slovakia), Luisa Morgantini (GUE/NGL Italy) and Miguel Angel Martínez Martínez (PES, Spain) and received 424 signatures.
Microcredit represents a method of lending small amounts that can be accessed by disadvantaged persons. The EP points out that microcredit has permitted extremely successful development of self-help employment projects, while also enabling the improvement of living conditions, and that it is also an important vehicle for the empowerment of women.
The EP requests the Commission and Council to recognise the importance of microcredit in the context of the Barcelona process and in neighbourhood and development policies. It calls on them to lend greater support to microcredit projects, and to bolster programmes to help women in that connection. MEPs are calling for human and financial resources to be allocated to microcredit projects in developing countries and the Mediterranean. They also suggest that a Joint Microcredit Association be created to certify the credibility of projects. (L.C.)