D. whereas action against poverty requires above all a radical change of policy in both industrialised and developing countries in order to address the structural causes of poverty, including unfair world trade rules, unaffordable debt payments by developing countries to international financial institutions, and unfair distribution of wealth,

D. whereas action against poverty requires above all a radical change of policy in both industrialised and developing countries in order to address the structural causes of poverty, including unfair world trade rules, unaffordable debt payments by developing countries to international financial institutions, and unfair distribution of wealth,

5. Supports the call by the UN Secretary-General at the 2005 High Level Dialogue on Finance for Development to redefine debt sustainability as the level of debt that allows a country to achieve the MDGs by 2015 without an increase in debt ratios, which requires greater complementarity between debt relief and outstanding development financing requirements; regrets therefore that in the new Debt Sustainability Framework for Low-Income Countries approved in April 2005, the IMF continues to define debt sustainability essentially in terms of export ratios (which is an unreliable predictor of debt sustainability for countries characterised by ...[+++] an extreme vulnerability to shock and steep fluctuations in export earnings), that it lacks realistic assessments of vulnerability and that there is no systematic analysis linking the benefits of the Debt Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (the HIPC initiative) and the extra funds needed to achieve the MDGs;

33. Supports the call by the UN Secretary-General at the 2005 High Level Dialogue on Finance for Development to redefine debt sustainability as the level of debt that allows a country to achieve the MDGs by 2015 without an increase in debt ratios, which requires greater complementarity between debt relief and outstanding development financing requirements; regrets therefore that in the new Debt Sustainability Framework for Low-Income Countries approved in April 2005, the IMF continues to define debt sustainability essentially in terms of export ratios (which is an unreliable predictor of debt sustainability for countries characterised b ...[+++]y an extreme vulnerability to shock and steep fluctuations in export earnings), that it lacks realistic assessments of vulnerability and that there is no systematic analysis linking the benefits of the HIPC Initiative and the extra funds needed to achieve the MDGs;

The Parliament is therefore right to demand documents proving the payment of these arrears to the assistants in order to reduce the debt.

The objectives differ between EU countries: they are stricter where the level of debt and estimated costs of an ageing population are higher.