Brussels, 03/04/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission signed last Friday, 31 March, a protocol agreement with the group from the World Bank, the EBRD, the Council of Europe's Development Bank, the Nordic investment Bank and the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation. In this protocol are outlined the principals on which will be based future co-operation between these financial institutions in view of preparing the accession of candidate countries from Central and eastern Europe to the EU.
A similar protocol was already signed in March 1998 between the Commission, the EBRD and the World Bank; with a new document, its scope of implementation is widened to all international financial institutions present in Central and Eastern Europe. In the framework of the implementation of its pre-accession assistance (ISDPA, Sapard and Phare programmes), "the Commission will maintain contacts with international financial institutions to identify with them possibilities for investments and insure adequate preparation of the projects and there in-depth follow-up," states a Commission spokesperson. Pedro Solbes, the Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, underlined the importance of this now widened co-operation which, in his opinion, "should lead to better co-ordination of strategy with regard to candidate countries and more rapid and systematic sharing of information on policies and programmes as well as on the co-financing of concrete programmes in a series of fields."
The Commission, the EBRD and the World Bank also signed a protocol agreement aiming for better co-ordination of their instruments of technical and financial aid promoting reforms in the countries within the New Independent State (NIS), that is to say, countries of the former USSR.