CEI Trust Fund

In 1992 the Italian Government established the Central European Initiative (CEI) Trust Fund at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). With this Agreement with the EBRD, the Italian Government acknowledged the great opportunity that the newly created development bank presented for the objectives that the CEI had embraced at its foundation in 1989. This is why the CEI Trust Fund was created “to assist the Bank’s countries of operation in central and eastern Europe in their economic and social transformation process.” Today, these objectives seem to be well on their way to being fully achieved.

Through the Secretariat for CEI Projects (CEI-PS) – the body that manages the Trust Fund – Italy has committed about €32.5 million in the CEI’s region of operation. The Secretariat for CEI Projects is mainly active in Technical Cooperation (TC) offered as grant-type assistance in support of specific components of projects. CEI-PS projects can materialise in investment generation, pre-investment, implementation or capacity building. For example, CEI funds can be used for feasibility and pre-feasibility studies, pre-loan audits, management training programmes, sector and environmental studies, etc. Since its inception, the CEI Trust Fund has provided about €18 million for Technical Cooperation (TC) projects.

Another factor, which strengthens the synergies achieved with the establishment of the CEI Trust Fund at the EBRD, is the sector-based spread of the CEI activities. The Secretariat for Projects has committed and disbursed monies towards projects in agriculture, energy, enterprise development, municipal development, transport, and general development. These are “TC-intense” fields and support some of the Bank’s top priorities in the region.

Equally, the CEI Trust Fund has also played an active role in fighting the obstacles faced by the CEI member states in their transition to market economies and European values. The Secretariat for CEI Projects’ leading tool in this fight has been the Know-how Exchange Programme (KEP), which is directly aimed at ensuring that the lack of skills and the legacies of the past do not hinder development. The KEP is a grant facility supporting transfer of good practices and transition experience from EU and to non-EU countries within the CEI. The number of projects endorsed since the launch of the Programme in 2004 has reached 34, for a cumulative CEI commitment of €873,457. The overall value (including all financing partners’ contributions) of the CEI co-financed KEP assignments exceeds €2.5 million.

However, until 2006, the Secretariat for CEI Projects also employed Cooperation Activities (CA) to promote cooperation between its members in order to transfer best practices. These activities are generally small in scale, limited in time and frequently take the form of seminars, workshops, training courses, conferences and study tours. One of the main principles of CEI funded CAs is the principle of co-financing. Although still ongoing through the funding of the CEI Cooperation Fund, the CEI Cooperation Activities were initially (1998-2002) entirely and later (2002-2006) partially supported by the Trust Fund at the EBRD and managed by the Secretariat for CEI Projects. Altogether, from 1998 until the end of 2006 the CEI Trust Fund at the EBRD co-financed 113 CAs, for a total of €1,601,784.

A final proof of the CEI’s commitment to the transition of its member states and to cooperation is the Project Secretariat’s array of partnerships with international financial institutions (IFIs) and international organisations. Examples of partners span from the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

As outlined in the CEI Plan of Action 2010-2012, the operational strategies of the CEI Trust Fund are in line with the EBRD country and sector strategies and with the ones of the other International Development Banks operating in the CEI region. The continuous cooperation with these institutions remains a feature of the CEI Trust Fund’s strategic approach.

Data shows that the EBRD is increasingly funding projects in the Western Balkan states and in other non-EU member states. The CEI Trust Fund has also followed this shift. As such, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, and Western Balkan countries are prioritised by the Fund.