David Bosco highlights ongoing negotiations on IMF governance reform at his blog The Multilateralist, including the following recent developments:
- IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Khan suggests “a solution [to the voting shares issue] could come at the annual meeting or at a G-20 conference in South Korea this year.”
- European countries consider a rotational system in response to U.S. calls for increased voting shares to emerging economies at the cost of reduced number of seats for European members.
- Leading economists call for additional reforms, including a more “transparent, open and merit-based selection of senior management and leadership of the IMF and other international organizations without restrictions based on nationality.”
- French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to make sweeping institutional change, including Bretton Woods and Security Council reform, next year. But Europe’s waning influence, China’s preference for being the only permanent Asian member of the Security Council, and Ban’s disinterest in rocking any boats this year, will leave serious reform effort up to U.S. President Barack Obama, say Bruce Jones and Richard Gowan.
