“My Government fully supports the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) operations in these countries, and feels confident that any investment made by the Bank in the SEMED area will yield positive results within a realistic timeframe,” said Minister for Finance Prof. Edward Scicluna.

Prof. Scicluna was speaking during an intervention which he made on Wednesday 14th May 2014 while attending the 23rd Annual Meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which is held in Warsaw between Tuesday 13th and Thursday 16th May.

During his address, Prof. Scicluna said that Malta is pleased to note that over the last year the EBRD has been boosting its operational activity in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region (SEMED) and has continued to increase the number of countries of operations within this region with the inclusion of Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.

“Here I would like to refer to Libya’s application for membership of the Bank. The lack of political and economic stability is exacerbating the irregular migration problem in Southern Europe especially Malta and Italy. Besides the humanitarian costs Involved are very high. Too many lives are being list on a regular basis,” Prof. Scicluna said.
“We would therefore like to express our strong support for Libya’s application. Furthermore, we also favour a positive response to the official request of Cyprus to be granted country recipient status by the EBRD.”

Prof. Scicluna noted that there is no doubt that SEMED countries face significant challenges in their transition to well-functioning market economies. EBRD support, particularly in the area of infrastructure development, will be essential to sustain the pace of economic and political reform in these countries while promoting the involvement of the private sector in industrial and commercial activities.

Prof. Scicluna added that “while we appreciate the Bank’s efforts to undertake a high volume of operations within the CRR4 envelope, we would like to ensure that adequate resources continue to be allocated to SEMED programmes.”

In addition to his intervention, Prof. Scicluna also met with the Governor of the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) Rolf Wenzel, a delegation from the European Investment Bank (EIB), and rating agency DBRS.

On Thursday morning, Minister Scicluna also chaired the session of the Board of Governors in his capacity as the Vice-Chairman of the EBRD’s Board of Governors.

– Thursday, 15th May, 2014