The EBRD has developed strategies, policies, procedures and related guidelines to guide its operations. Basic information on EBRD policies and strategies can be found on the EBRD webpage.
Public Information Policy
The EBRD is reviewing its 2006 Public Information Policy ahead of scheduled review in 2009 in response to stakeholder demands. In early April 2008 the EBRD held a series of public consultations and is presently preparing a second draft of the revised policy for the Board Review. For detailed information about the policy as well as the revision process, see BIC’s Transparency at the EBRD webpage.
Draft revised Public Information Policy, EBRD, November 20, 2007 (Acrobat pdf, 100 KB)
Public Information Policy, EBRD, May 16, 2006 (Acrobat pdf, 100 KB)
Accountability at the EBRD: Independent Recourse Mechanism
The EBRD has instituted an Independent Recourse Mechanism (IRM), which was approved on April 29, 2003. The IRM allows local groups affected by EBRD project to file complaints with the Bank.
Many civil society organizations have expressed concerns about the independence and transparency of the mechanism, the limited scope of its application, and its accessibility to affected communities were not addressed in the final document (see documents below). Similar concerns expressed by former World Bank Inspection Panel members were also not addressed.
Find out more on BIC's Accountability at the EBRD webpage.
Environmental Policy
In the fall of 2006, the EBRD began a review of its Environmental Policy, which was last reviewed and revised in 2003. The review is scheduled to go on through most of 2007 and to encompass social, as well as environmental, issues related to EBRD-financed projects. A draft revised Enviornmental Policy was released on the EBRD website in February 2008. During late March and early April EBRD held a series of public consultation workshops in regoinal offices in Europe and Central Asia.
CSOs have expressed concerns about serious shortcomings in the current policy with respect to social safeguards and public access to environmental information. They are advocating clear requirements for assessing and mitigating the adverse impacts of EBRD projects on the rights and living conditions of workers and local communities. They are also lobbying the EBRD to provide greater access to environmental assessments, particularly in the early stages of planning and development of its projects.
BIC Comments on EBRD Environmental Policy Discussion Paper, Bank Information Center (Acrobat pdf, 49 KB)
BIC comments on the draft EBRD Environmental and Social Policy, Bank Information Center (Acrobat pdf, 43 KB)
Country Strategies
Bank Information Center prepares a timeline of the international financial institutions' plans for updating their 3-5 year country strategies, which define levels of lenging and thematic/sector priorities for each borrowing country:
IFI Country Strategies for Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia: Overview, Schedule, and Contacts, December 2007, Bank Information Center (Acrobat pdf, 106 KB)