European Parliament
President.
Question No 34 by Patricia McKenna 
Subject: IMF programmes and the EC's overall objective of poverty eradication
Given EC concerns with how IMF programmes can conflict with the EC’s overall objective of poverty eradication, can the Commission clarify EC policy on linking disbursement of EC budget support to compliance with an IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF)? In particular would the EC continue to disburse budget support if a country were off track solely on non-core elements of an IMF PRGF e.g. a condition to privatise a state body? Would the EC continue to disburse budget support if a country were off track on an IMF PRGF programme where the EC judged the IMF’s programme to be overly restrictive and to prevent the country from maximising poverty reduction spending?’

