'DROP THE DEBT' SAYS FIONA

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 24th Oct 2007

North East's Liberal Democrat MEP, Fiona Hall, has said that 'illegitimate' debt should be dropped. To mark the end of Action on Debt Week, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Ms Hall added her support to the Parliamentarians' Declaration for Shared Responsibility for Sovereign Lending.

Along with this Fiona Hall has also joined calls for a parliamentary investigation into Europe's past lending with a possible view to cancelling any outstanding debts that are deemed to have been lent irresponsibility.

Loans that are deemed 'illegitimate' or irresponsibly loaned are ones made in the past to corrupt dictators, and for which the present, often democratically elected regimes, bear no responsibility. These elected and legitimate governments can spend vast amounts of time tackling the debt and dealing with the creditors who made the loans in the first place.

Countries that have been under the weight of these debts for many years include some of the poorest in the world, such as Haiti and Liberia. Norway has already dropped all its 'illegitimate' debts.

Adding her support to the campaign, Fiona Hall said:

"I have seen at first hand the poverty and destitution in countries such as Haiti. Parliamentarians throughout Europe should be more active in scrutinising international lending to make sure that loans to developing countries are legitimate and responsible.

"It is high time that all EU countries did the right and necessary thing and dropped illegitimate debt."