PROFILE
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was created in 1991
-- simultaneous with the breakup of the Former Soviet Union -- to open up the
formerly communist countries to multinational corporations and investors. Like
the World Bank Group, and other regional development bank offshoots of the
Bretton Woods institutions, the EBRD is clearly focused on a strategy of
privatization, liberalization of financial and trade markets, and deregulation--the
three pillars of neoliberalism. Also like the World Bank Group, the EBRD has made
fossil fuels an engine of this development model. As a result, although it came
into existence in 1991, the EBRD is already proving to be a major player in promoting the rapid
accumulation of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere.
The EBRD's members are drawn from 58 countries; two additional members of
the EBRD are the European Community and the European Investment Bank (60
members total). All 60 members have voting power on the board of the EBRD,
but, like the World Bank, the largest contributors have the largest
influence. The U.S. is the number one contributor to both the World Bank and
the EBRD, and thus has the largest influence over both institutions.
Click here for the report "The EBRD:
Fueling Climate Change," a collaborative study by Daphne
Wysham, director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network (Institute
for Policy Studies, U.S.) and Jim Vallette, director of the International
Trade Information Service (U.S).
Visit the EBRD's web site
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