LONDON/SARAJEVO – Southeast Europe (SEE) remains a top priority for the investment policy of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Bank’s Vice President Horst Reichenbach told the RCC Secretary General Hido Biscevic at their meeting in London yesterday.

The two officials stressed that SEE is a unique European region, with dynamic economic development, high growth and foreign direct investment rates, and thus it necessitates a maximum effort from international financial institutions (IFIs) to minimize the impact on SEE of the present financial turmoil or economic recession in Europe and the world.

“Southeast Europe is a valuable emerging market and it must be preserved from possible negative spillover effects of the international financial crisis”, said Secretary General Biscevic. “On their part, the SEE governments have undertaken serious measures to counter the crisis, with a clear understanding that preservation of an economic dynamics is an investment into political and social stability of the region.”

Secretary General Biscevic thanked Vice President Reichenbach for the EBRD support in this important matter. He informed of RCC activities and the establishment of a permanent mechanism of cooperation on transnational developmental projects among the SEE countries, the European Commission, the IFIs and the RCC, which has been designed by the RCC Secretariat. These include projects to be financed through the EU’s Multi-beneficiary Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) Programme.

Vice President Reichenbach confirmed the EBRD would stand by the SEE countries and announced the Bank’s readiness to join the transnational projects cooperation mechanism. He pointed out that the Bank would continue to work with other IFIs and donors on maintaining the positive investment climate in Southeast Europe, highlighting energy and infrastructure as development priorities for the region.