Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 30 April 2015
172. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if Ireland will participate in the United Nations committee on sovereign debt restructuring; if he will report on his discussions, and those of the ambassador to the United Nations, held with other states regarding the committee; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17082/15]
View answerLast September, the UN General Assembly was presented with a draft Resolution on the modalities for the implementation of General Assembly Resolution 68/304 on the establishment of a multilateral legal framework for sovereign debt restructuring processes. The main focus of the resolution was the setting up of an ad hoc committee to elaborate a binding debt resolution mechanism. Following detailed consideration of the proposal and discussions with the EU and other UN partners, Ireland, and our EU partners, were unable to support the Resolution.
Ireland, along with EU partners, engaged actively and in good faith in the process, including through the extensive efforts of our Permanent Representative to the UN. We supported the EU’s statement clarifying the important considerations which informed the negotiating approach on the Resolution, as follows:
“The ad-hoc committee must be limited to the elaboration of a non-binding 'set of principles' which builds upon a market-based voluntary contractual approach to sovereign debt restructuring and aims at furthering its implementation and use. Neither the EU nor Member States will participate in discussions aiming at the establishment of a binding multilateral legal framework for sovereign debt restructuring processes.
The ad-hoc committee should reflect the recent and ongoing work on sovereign debt restructuring undertaken in the IMF, subject to the previous considerations, and should take place in close coordination with and with technical support from the Fund. Discussions should also make reference to the work in other fora on these issues, such as the Paris Club, which has a history of discussing sovereign debt restructuring issues.”
In the event, the Resolution continued to propose the elaboration of a new legal framework and, in these circumstances, Ireland, in common with EU partners, will not be participating in the work of the committee.
Ireland is actively engaged in ongoing global processes to address the issue of sovereign debt restructuring. Work being undertaken at other levels, including in the IMF and at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development to be held in Addis Ababa in July, offer appropriate, established and constructive means for meaningful dialogue on the matter. We are playing our full role, in partnership with our EU colleagues, in working for the success of the Financing for Development Conference in Addis, which is central to the ongoing negotiations on a new framework for global development to follow on from the Millennium Development Goals. These major international negotiations at the UN are being co-chaired by Ireland’s Permanent Representative to the UN, with Kenya.
We recognise the importance of continuing to address global debt issues in a development context and will continue to engage in processes, in appropriate fora, that promote constructive dialogue and propose effective and suitable mechanisms to support the countries most seriously affected.
