Serbia inherits IMF, WB and EBRD membership
BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia will inherit membership in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank after the breakup of its loose union with Montenegro, their finance ministers and central banks agreed yesterday. «Montenegro has agreed that Serbia will inherit the full membership of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development,» Montenegrin Finance Minister Igor Luksic said after meeting with his Serbian counterpart Mladjan Dinkic. Montenegro declared independence this month after more than 55 percent of its voters chose to leave the union of Serbia and Montenegro in a May 21 referendum. Initially, Montenegro disputed a clause in the defunct union’s constitution that said the seceding state forfeits the membership of all international bodies from the United Nations to the World Bank and IMF. That would mean Serbia is left as the automatic successor and Montenegro has to apply for membership from scratch. «Serbia will retain the membership of those institutions with the current quota,» Serbian Finance Minister Mladjan Dinkic told Reuters from Podgorica, where the meeting was held. «In the case of the IMF, this amounts to around $700 million,» he added.
