European Finance Ministers gave the go-ahead on Thursday 5 December to launch an independent study in 2020 that will allow the study of the feasibility of two of the three options recommended in the Wieser report on rationalising the European financial architecture for development (see EUROPE 12382/16).
In the conclusions that they adopted, the Ministers discarded the option of creating a shared structure between the EIB and the EBRD. The feasibility study will therefore focus on the following options: - transfer from the EIB to the EBRD of operations outside the European Union (option 1); - ask the EIB to establish a subsidiary for its EU external activities and to be a minority shareholder in it alongside the Member States, the European Commission, and national development banks (option 3).
In a public debate, Spain hoped that the deadlines set, namely a presentation of the study's results in autumn 2020, would be anticipated, particularly since the Finance Ministers will have to discuss the EBRD's investment strategy by next May.
For Denmark, the ongoing reflection should not lead to the mobilisation of more financial resources for development policy, but should optimise the impact of the resources already available, the European Union and its Member States being already the most important donors in this field.
Romania stressed the importance of a balanced geographical distribution of the envelopes, underlining the strategic importance of the Western Balkans region.
Welcoming this work, the ONE organisation called for a robust budget for external action in the context of the next Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027.
See the conclusions: http://bit.ly/2Ln0U87 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)