The EU in light of IMF reform: loans as a means of entrenchment

 In 2010, the IMF Board of Governors approved the Fourteenth General Review of Quotas, which proposes significant redistribution of voting power, displacing it from the «over-represented» European states towards the «under-represented» emerging market countries. The results, once the changes are applied, will put the four BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) among the ten largest contributors to the IMF. Using the analytical framework proposed by Barbé et al. (2014), this

article considers the recent changes in the light of the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971, the transition to soft loans and the restructuring of sovereign debt. Given that the enormous loans to bailout Greece, Ireland and Portugal recommend continuing to use the IMF to promote the interests of the EU, it is argued that it is too early to speak of European decline at the heart of the Fund.

Key words: European Union, IMF, crisis, hegemonic structure

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