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| Jean Lemierre: president of the EBRD says its fundamental principles are not contradictory. |
After making mistakes early in its life – think marble floors in its London HQ and losses in Russia – the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has forged a role for itself as one of the most important market participants in the central and eastern European region. It is the largest CEE private-equity investor, is involved in the biggest deals, and is the most active and most prominent multilateral. Indeed, the European Investment Bank, which is far larger than the EBRD and is a shareholder in it, is quietly envious of the amount of publicity the younger institution gets.
Its distinct culture combines the dynamism and decent salaries of the private sector with the idealism of, say, the Department for International Development. This culture is a product of the EBRD's unique mandate, the brain-child of its creator, French philosopher Jacques Attali. It is a public-sector institution dedicated to promoting private-sector activity.
Today, 12 years after it was set up, the bank faces two key challenges. First, now that central European countries are acceding to the EU, is it time for it to accept that these countries have made the transition to free market democracies, and that the bank's work is finished there? Secondly, as the bank moves east into central Asia, is it attempting the impossible in trying to get these states to move to free market multi-party democracies?
Contradictory principles? Under its principle of additionality, the EBRD is meant to work only in areas where the private sector won't go.