Brussels, 08/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will open its first branch in Casablanca, announced its deputy president Jan Fischer on his return from a working trip to Morocco, which took place on 26-27 January. The EBRD has been called upon by the European Commission to get involved in funding cooperation in the Mediterranean.
During this visit, Fischer told the Moroccan press that the EBRD intends to invest €2.5 billion every year in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan. The share of each of these countries will depend on its needs and capacity to absorb the credit, he said. Fischer went on to state that the bank has already committed €60 million in these emerging democracies as part of the technical cooperation which precedes its direct intervention in these countries. Like Egypt, Morocco will be among its initial beneficiaries, but the EBRD is so far active only in the post-communist countries of Eastern Europe. (FB/transl.fl)