News

High-level meeting between the European Commission and Financial Institutions on the Western Balkans

5 November 2013

BRUSSELS - Governor Wenzel today participated in a high-level meeting between the European Commission and international as well as bilateral financial institutions involved in operations in the Western Balkans.

The Council of European Development Bank (CEB), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and KfW Bankengruppe met with the European Commission to discuss how they could best coordinate their efforts during the period 2014-2020, each within the remit of its mandate, in order to boost growth in the region.

European and International Financial Institutions agreed to intensify their cooperation on key infrastructure investment in the Western Balkan countries and to jointly develop innovative financial instruments which pool public and private funds. The European Commission announced in this context its intention to use up to €1 billion from the new Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance to secure funding in this area for the 2014-2020 programming period.

The CEB, the EIB, the EBRD, the World Bank and KfW also agreed with the European Commission to use the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) in order to ensure that EU and Member State resources are used for the financing of key priority investment in the beneficiary countries, through a single pipeline.

Governor Wenzel made a presentation on social inclusion and in particular on the importance of securing loans and grants for social development. 

Joint Conclusions agreed at the high-level meeting are appended hereto.

See also the press release by the European Commission: “European Commission and the Financial Institutions agreed to intensify their cooperation for innovative infrastructure solutions in the Western Balkans”