Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

The Troika Troika Troika: IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank, which together impose austerity measures through the conditions tied to loans to countries in difficulty.

IMF : https://www.ecb.europa.eu/home/html/index.en.html is the informal name of the “decision making” group made up by the European Central Bank Central Bank The establishment which in a given State is in charge of issuing bank notes and controlling the volume of currency and credit. In France, it is the Banque de France which assumes this role under the auspices of the European Central Bank (see ECB) while in the UK it is the Bank of England.

ECB : http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/Pages/home.aspx (ECB ECB
European Central Bank The European Central Bank is a European institution based in Frankfurt, founded in 1998, to which the countries of the Eurozone have transferred their monetary powers. Its official role is to ensure price stability by combating inflation within that Zone. Its three decision-making organs (the Executive Board, the Governing Council and the General Council) are composed of governors of the central banks of the member states and/or recognized specialists. According to its statutes, it is politically ‘independent’ but it is directly influenced by the world of finance.

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/html/index.en.html ), the International Monetary Fund IMF
International Monetary Fund Along with the World Bank, the IMF was founded on the day the Bretton Woods Agreements were signed. Its first mission was to support the new system of standard exchange rates.

When the Bretton Wood fixed rates system came to an end in 1971, the main function of the IMF became that of being both policeman and fireman for global capital: it acts as policeman when it enforces its Structural Adjustment Policies and as fireman when it steps in to help out governments in risk of defaulting on debt repayments.

As for the World Bank, a weighted voting system operates: depending on the amount paid as contribution by each member state. 85% of the votes is required to modify the IMF Charter (which means that the USA with 17,68% % of the votes has a de facto veto on any change).

The institution is dominated by five countries: the United States (16,74%), Japan (6,23%), Germany (5,81%), France (4,29%) and the UK (4,29%).
The other 183 member countries are divided into groups led by one country. The most important one (6,57% of the votes) is led by Belgium. The least important group of countries (1,55% of the votes) is led by Gabon and brings together African countries.

http://imf.org (IMF) and the European Commission (EC).

These three multilateral agencies - integrated by various countries - study the economic situation of countries to point out what measures and economic reforms should be carried out if they want to consolidate their accounts and grow. These analysisare made from a clear neoliberal point of view,subject to pressure from corporate lobbies Lobby
Lobbies A lobby is an entity organized to represent and defend the interests of a specific group by exerting pressure or influence on persons or institutions that hold power. Lobbying consists in conducting actions aimed at influencing, directly or indirectly, the drafting, application or interpretation of legislative measures, standards, regulations and more generally any intervention or decision by the Public Authorities. . The EU itself, in its voluntary “Transparency Register”, has 2524 registered corporate pressure groups, though, according to other sources, they are less than half of the existing “lobbies”.

When receiving funding from the IMF or the European Stability Mechanism ESM
European Stability Mechanism The European Stability Mechanism is a European entity for managing the financial crisis in the Eurozone. In 2012, it replaced the European Financial Stability Facility and the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, which had been implemented in response to the public-debt crisis in the Eurozone. It concerns only EU member States that are part of the Eurozone. If there is a threat to the stability of the Eurozone, this European financial institution is supposed to grant financial ‘assistance’ (loans) to a country or countries in difficulty. There are strict conditions to this assistance.

http://www.esm.europa.eu/ (ESM), countries compromise to strictly follow the “conditionalities” set out in a document known as a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

We can say that a country funded by the Troika is intervened because, when following their guidelines, it loses much of its political independence. In fact, in the words of former Prime Minister of Italy, Mario Monti, “The arrival of the Troika (…) is a very intrusive presence and, de facto, an asymmetric loss of sovereignty.”

The Spanish State receives regular visits from the Troika after signing the Memorandum of Understanding to recapitalize private banks. Those 100,000 million euros are going to turn out very expensive.

We don’t owe, we won’t pay!
Without debt we all win. Rise up!

SOURCES
EU Transparency Register: http://ec.europa.eu Retrieved on June 9^th, 2013.
Mario Monti (14-11-2012). Le parole e i fatti. Rizzoli: “.. arrivo della troika (composta da Commissione europea, BCE e FMI“). pp. 19 -. ISBN 978-88-586-3901-6. Retrieved June 9^th, 2013.