PORTO, Portugal (Thomson Financial) - EU finance ministers are willing to abolish Europe's monopoly on the top job at the IMF and to open up the post to developing countries, Portuguese finance minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said.
'We need to define a principle of rotation that would allow for different countries from different regions to take that role', Teixeira dos Santos told reporters after chairing a two-day meeting of EU finance ministers and central bankers in Porto, northern Portugal.
Since its creation in 1944, the IMF has been headed by a European while its sister organisation, the World Bank, has had an American at the top.
The EU's nomination of former French finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn for the IMF job has drawn criticism from several quarters, including the UK, on the grounds that it should go to a candidate from a developing country.
EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner Joaquin Almunia said the issue 'should be considered in a global agreement', implying that the change should also apply to the World Bank.
'It is important to give emerging countries a greater say in all the multilateral institutions', he said.
In addition, Almunia and Teixeira dos Santos both said they hope for an agreement next month on fiercely-debated changes to IMF quota shares, which determine members' voting power based on coutries' economic positions.
'Europeans will agree in a more rational way to allow representation of all the areas of the world,' the commissioner said.
Teixeira dos Santos said: 'We need to get an agreement in October to enhance the fund's legitimacy...and to give greater weight to the most dynamic emerging economies.' antonia.vandevelde@thomson.com ava COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.