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SP Development Spokesman: ‘Wolfowitz Successor at World Bank Should Not Automatically Be An American’

18 May 2007

SP Development Spokesman: ‘Wolfowitz Successor at World Bank Should Not Automatically Be An American’

Development Minister Bert Koenders should tear up the longstanding gentleman's agreement that specifies that the President of the World Bank should be an American, argues SP Member of Parliament and Development spokesman Ewout Irrgang in reaction to the resignation of Paul Wolfowitz.

Wolfowitz's departure presents an ideal opportunity to institute a new selection procedure in choosing his successor. Because of a gentleman's agreement arrived at long ago the President of the World Bank is always an American, and the SP wants to see an immediate end put to this neocolonial policy and bring the process out into the daylight. Development Minister Bert Koenders, from the Labour Party (PvdA) wants to see a new procedure in three years, but the SP does not feel that this is soon enough.

Ewout Irrgang“Wolfowitz's successor should ideally be someone from a developing country with a suitable background as an economist," argues Irrgang. "This crisis is an ideal time, in addition, to abolish the right of veto which the Americans exercise in both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund."

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