EBRD Annual Meeting and Business Forum 2014

The 2014 EBRD Annual Meeting and Business Forum 'Changing Economies, Changing Lives' took place in Warsaw, Poland, 14-15 May 2014. EBRD shareholders set priorities on how to break reform deadlock, while policy-makers and experts discussed the region's economic and social well-being.

The event took place just as geopolitical tensions were threatening the recovery in some of the larger economies where the Bank invests such as Ukraine and Russia.

On the 25th anniversary of the collapse of communist rule in central Europe and a decade after eight former eastern bloc countries joined the European Union, the Annual Meeting and Business Forum took stock of lessons learnt and assessed future challenges.

The EBRD’s Board of Governors, representing the Bank’s 66 shareholders, discussed proposals to 're-energise' the reform process.

They also decided whether Cyprus should temporarily become a recipient of EBRD financing and whether Libya should be admitted as a member of the Bank.

In addition to the formal discussions, policy-makers and leading experts held high-level panel discussions at the Business Forum, addressing issues that were key to the future economic and social well-being of the countries where the EBRD works.

The EBRD’s Transition Report 2013 – 'Stuck in Transition?' – had provided pointers to help overcome the reform gridlock that threatened the process of convergence with more advanced economies.

Building on that Report, the EBRD management’s ‘Medium Term Directions” presented to the Annual Meeting aimed to make market reforms more resilient, to promote greater regional and international integration and to provide an effective response to global and regional challenges such as climate change and food security.

• Primary Source

European Commission: RAPID: SPEECH/14/382: Statement by Vice-President Kallas at the Annual Meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-14-382_en.htm

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