European Union finance ministers today backed a call from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to double its crisi-fighting funds to $500 billion, ahead of a meeting of G20 finance ministers this weekned, an EU diplomat said.
"The terms of reference for the G20 ministerial meeting have been approved," said the diplomat after the 27-nation bloc's ministers agreed on a document spelling out their joint position at the G20 meeting on March 13 and 14th in Britain.
The "terms of reference", enshrining EU thinking on the main issues for G20 deliberation, said the raise should be split fairly among IMF members, particularly those with large currency reserves -- in line with previous calls for countries like China and Saudi Arabia to pay a sizeable share.
It also detailed the position of the EU on economic policy, regulation, international institutions, the IMF and Multilateral Development Banks.
"EU member states support a doubling of IMF resources and are ready to contribute to a temporary increase, if needed," it said.
"The additional resources should be mobilized in the first instance via enlarging and expanding the NAB (New Arrangements to Borrow), on the basis of a fair burden-sharing, notably by encouraging countries that over the last years have accumulated significant foreign reserves to participate," the document said.
"It is essential that the IMF has appropriate financial means to assist countries particularly affected by the current crisis," it said.
China and Saudi Arabia fit that description of countries with large reserves. Officials in Europe have said that they need to contribute significantly in return for their place in global policy coordination via the G20 forum, which includes the world's largest economies, industrialised and developing.
Reuters