CEB holds annual Joint Meeting in Portugal

LISBON – The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) is holding its 54th annual Joint Meeting in Lisbon today, at the invitation of the Portuguese government. Portugal’s Minister of Finance, Mário José Gomes de Freitas Centeno, opened the session. 

In his opening address, Minister of Finance Mário Centeno commended the CEB on its continuing sound performance and capacity to meet the needs of its members, and highlighted the social development areas in which Portugal had been cooperating with the Bank. “The CEB is a strong and reliable partner to promote inclusive and sustainable growth,” he stressed, and expressed confidence that the partnership with Portugal would strengthen further in the years to come. 

Snežana Samardžić-Marković, Council of Europe Director General of Democracy underlined that the CEB was a major tool at the disposal of member countries that could be used in order to tackle challenges such as rising inequalities, social exclusion and human rights violations. “The Council of Europe, the CEB and member states must continue their collective efforts to protect democracy and human rights from challenges to social cohesion,” she concluded. 

Dominique Lamiot, Chair of the CEB Governing Board, said that in the current context of numerous and complex challenges facing European societies, the CEB had a major role to play and that a flexible and strategic approach were needed. 

Miglė Tuskienė, Chair of the CEB’s Administrative Council, stressed the good results which the CEB continued to deliver in the past year, outlined key sectors in which the Bank had been active, and stressed that social projects could make a difference when it came to supporting inclusive growth for all, so that no-one was left behind. 

Concluding the series of statements, CEB Governor Rolf Wenzel said that Portugal was an example of how the cooperation between the CEB and its members could yield concrete results and make a real difference on the ground. He stressed the need to strengthen social cohesion as a means of fighting against inequality and exclusion. “The CEB, through its increased activity in recent years, has demonstrated that it has both the commitment and the capacity to support its members in tackling social challenges,” he said. 

In the afternoon, the CEB’s 313th Administrative Council meeting and 223rd Governing Board meeting are being held. Eleven projects with a high social impact will be presented to the Administrative Council for approval during its afternoon session. 

On 4 July, the CEB organised along with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation a conference on the topic “From Imperative to Urgency: Investment for Social Inclusion” in the premises of the Foundation. You can read more about the conference here.

The 2020 CEB Joint Meeting will be held in Dublin, Ireland.