Paris Club

Paris Club (Club de Paris) "is an informal group of official creditors whose role is to find co-ordinated and sustainable solutions to the payment difficulties experienced by debtor nations. Paris Club creditors agree to rescheduling debts due to them. Rescheduling is a means of providing a country with debt relief through a postponement and, in the case of concessional rescheduling, a reduction in debt service obligations. ... the Paris Club has remained strictly informal. It is the voluntary gathering of creditor countries willing to treat in a co-ordinated way the debt due to them by the developing countries. It can be described as a 'non institution'. ... Although the Paris Club has no legal basis nor status, agreements are reached following a number of rules and principles agreed by creditor countries, which help a co-ordinated agreement to be reached efficiently."

Functioning

"The creditor countries meet 10 to 11 times a year, for negotiation sessions or to discuss among themselves the situation of the external debt of debtor countries or methodological issues on the debt of developing countries.

"These meetings are held in Paris. The Chairman is a senior official of the French Treasury. Deputies to the Chairman in the French Treasury serve as co-president and vice-president. The current Chairman is Mr. Jean Pierre Jouyet, Head of the Treasury. Mrs Stéphane Pallez, Deputy to the Head of the Treasury in charge of international and European affairs at the Treasury, is Co-President and Mr Ramon Fernandez, her Deputy in charge of debt, development and emerging markets, is Vice-President.

"A permanent Secretariat General is maintained by a division of around 15 people of the French Treasury, that work part time for the Paris Club. The Secretary General is currently Mr Emmanuel Moulin."

Amounts treated since 1983 equal $350 billion. -

Other Related SourceWatch Resources

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 * Restructuring and reducing Iraq's official debt