Une occasion de réformer le FMI ?

Une occasion de réformer le FMI ?

Alors que certains se désolent en craignant que le très probable départ de DSK du FMI va couper les ailes à ce qu’ils jugent être l’évolution “sociale”, sinon “progressiste” que le Français avait lancée au sein de cette organisation, d’autres y voient au contraire une occasion d’aller plus loin. En l’occurrence, il s’agirait de tenter, à l’occasion du changement de directeur, d’imposer une position nouvelle de force à l’avantage des nouveaux pays et nouvelles puissances économiques, en l’occurrence les pays du BRICS (Brésil, Russie, Inde, Chine, Afrique du Sud).

Selon David Proosser, de The Independent ce 17 mai 2011, ce serait une opportunité extraordinaire de transformer le FMI, effectivement dans un sens “progressiste”, mais cette fois au profit d’une fraction importante de la planète en tant que telle, d’une façon qui pourrait effectivement conduire à des modifications du Système en général.

«The Dominique Strauss-Kahn case is a story of personal tragedies – for the International Monetary Fund chief, of course, but more so for his alleged victim. But at an institutional level there is a golden opportunity to grasp here. This is the moment to fully embrace reform of the IMF, to transform it into an institution that reflects the economic world order of the 21st century rather than the Second World War environment in which it was created.

»The most powerful way to do that would be to acknowledge that almost 70 years after the IMF was set up, Europe no longer has an automatic right to select one of its own as its managing director. That right, given as a counterbalance to the American right to choose the head of the World Bank, is indefensible in a world where, on the IMF's own figures, Europe accounts for only a quarter of the global economy. Until now, Europe's leaders appeared to believe that having thrown some bones to the developing world on voting reform, they would be able to choose at least one more leader (David Cameron, who has publicly called for a non-European, is an honourable exception, though cynics may wonder whether he is motivated by Gordon Brown's candidacy for the job).

»The circumstances in which Mr Strauss-Kahn's term of office is now coming to an end ought to fatally weaken the Europeans' ability to retain power. And once it has installed its first non-European leader, the IMF should also find it easier to go much further on voting-rights reform. China, India and other developing economies have not yet been given sufficient recognition – they have been granted more voting rights than in the past but the US and Europe retain the same tight control over the IMF's decisions that they have always enjoyed.

»Reform is not simply a question of good governance. The IMF must become more representative because it will become ever-more dependent on China and the rest – for the funds they can provide, but also for global economic co-operation and collaboration.

»Opponents of reform will be mustering their forces as we speak. But they should ask themselves whether the record of the Western-controlled IMF justifies maintaining the status quo. Never mind the resentment around the world of countries that have had the IMF's solutions imposed upon them – including some in Europe itself right now. Where was this august body's warning of the most severe financial crisis in its history three years ago?»

dedefensa.org