Our donors

The Bank continued to build new partnerships with donors throughout 2025. Contributions to CEB trust funds totalled €35 million during the year, including €21 million from the European Union (EU), €1.5 million from Germany and €12 million from the Bank’s earnings.

Total resources channelled into CEB trust funds since the start of fiduciary operations in 1995 now stand at close to €1.1 billion. The substantial funding received by the Bank illustrates donors’ support for the Bank’s social mandate, trust in its capacity and appreciation for its lean and responsive operating model.

As millions across Europe continue to lack adequate housing, healthcare, education, and other essential services, the CEB’s mandate is more important than ever. The Bank is actively seeking additional contributions from donors to tackle these pressing issues. In partnership with its donors, the CEB will continue to scale up its support to highly social projects.

The European Union

The European Union stands as the CEB’s largest donor, having provided a total of €784 million or 75% of all contributions received by the Bank since trust funds were established in 1995. The strength of this cooperation highlights the complementarity of the two institutions: while the EU is the leading actor in the social sector in Europe, both in terms of policy and funding, the CEB has longstanding expertise in implementing high-impact social projects.

The CEB’s main partner within the European Commission is the Directorate-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood (DG ENEST), since most joint projects are situated outside the EU. DG ENEST has teamed up with the CEB on SHIFA, an initiative to enhance healthcare for refugees and host communities in Türkiye and oversees two facilities backing CEB initiatives: the Western Balkans Investment Framework and the Neighbourhood Investment Platform.

The CEB also participates in the InvestEU programme, an initiative that supports sustainable investment, innovation and job creation in Europe. InvestEU is managed by the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW). It guarantees CEB loans under its Fund and provides technical assistance to CEB projects, in particular in the microfinance sector, under its Advisory Hub. The Bank also supports microfinance jointly with the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), which is managed by the Directorate‑General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL), together with Member States.

CEB activities also receive support from the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P), a multi-donor facility where the EU is the largest donor.

Donor countries

Donor countries are also essential partners of the Bank. Since the establishment of the first CEB trust fund in 1995, 28 member countries have contributed a combined €107 million. Germany is the largest donor, having donated €23 million to CEB trust funds, including the Ukraine Solidarity Fund and the Migrant and Refugee Fund. Norway is the second largest donor with €16 million in contributions while Italy is the third largest donor with a total of €9 million.

Other member countries have shown their commitment to the CEB’s mandate by setting up bilateral trust funds, such as the Spanish Social Cohesion Account, the Slovak Inclusive Growth Account and the Italian Fund for Innovative Projects.

Non-member countries have also supported CEB trust funds; notably, the United States has contributed €24 million, making it the largest donor country and the second largest donor overall after the EU.

Furthermore, the CEB has allocated €159 million from its earnings to its trust funds, including the Social Impact Account and the Ukraine Solidarity Fund.

Data at end-2025