21 December 1993

Doc. 6982

MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION

on the need for closer parliamentary monitoring of the activities

of the Bretton Woods institutions, that is the World Bank

and the International Monetary Fund 1

presented by Mr HOLTZ and others

1.       The Assembly recalls its Resolution 952 (1990) on OECD activities, in which it called on OECD member states to "equip the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund with parliamentary observer institutions which can monitor their activities and policies...".

2.       Such a parliamentary role is all the more called for since it is the parliaments of participating countries which approve funding of the institutions in question - a large part coming from Council of Europe member countries - without, however, having any direct say over policy. The 50th anniversary in 1994 of the creation of the two Bretton Woods institutions in question, would be a suitable occasion to start the above process.

3.       Members of parliament of the wider Europe have a particular interest in holding regular exchanges of views with these institutions on matters of common interest in the economic and related fields - such as the need for sustained, socially just and environmentally sound development in the world's poorer countries based on democracy and human rights; and the direction of economic reform and the strengthening of human rights and democracy in post-communist central and eastern Europe.

4.       Considering that the Council of Europe is already the widest European political organisation, that it is likely to soon embrace all democratic European nations, and that it has a strong and well-established Parliamentary Assembly highly active also in economic co-operation, the latter would be the most appropriate pan-European forum for such exchanges of views.

5.       The Assembly notes with satisfaction its already good co-operation with the two Bretton Woods institutions in question, and calls for its significant extension on behalf of Europe's citizens and the continent's political interests.

Signed:

Holtz, Verspaget, Kiliç, Demiralp, Paire, Wielowieyski, Flückiger,

Davis, Rehn, Schwimmer, Hunault, Durrieu, Kittelmann, Mändmets

1 ¹ 1. This text only represents the views of the individual members who have signed it. It does not reflect a position adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly.