Austrian Finance Minister Elected Chairman of the Board of Governors of EBRD
With Magnus Brunner, the EBRD is getting an Austrian as the new Chairman of the Board of Governors. Austria's Finance Minister succeeds the Portuguese Finance Minister and will hold the office for one year. Brunner takes over this position at an enormously important time, as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is playing a central role in the reconstruction of Ukraine with its financial resources.
Magnus Brunner will be the new Chairman of the Board of Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / EBRD/Dermot Doorly, CC BY-SA 4.0
Austria's Finance Minister Magnus Brunner was elected Wednesday night as the new Chairman of the Board of Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Brunner succeeds Fernando Medina, the Portuguese finance minister and former mayor of Lisbon, and will hold the post for one year until the next annual meeting, which is currently scheduled to take place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The Board of Governors, on which each shareholder is represented, provides the ultimate leadership of the Bank.
The EBRD's shareholders are 71 countries plus the European Union and the European Investment Bank. Each shareholder is individually represented on the Board of Governors, a body that provides senior leadership to the Bank.
Along with the World Bank, the EBRD is one of the most important development banks and plays a central role in the reconstruction of Ukraine with its financial resources.
We stand by Ukraine
— The EBRD (@EBRD) May 12, 2022
We're supporting Ukraine's economy during the war.
We've already committed an initial €2 billion resilience package to help citizens, companies and countries affected by the conflict.#SupportingUkraine pic.twitter.com/PNTdkF0GNb
The bank's goal is to promote the economic transformation process in the former communist Central and Eastern European countries (e.g. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Croatia, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia) and the "Commonwealth of Independent States" (e.g. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). The aim is to support the development towards a market economy with private entrepreneurial activities.
"Reconstruction requires international coordination. Supporting Ukraine is not only an essential concern for us because of our solidarity with the population in the country, but also makes a sustainable contribution to stability in Europe," said Finance Minister Magnus Brunner in a statement.
BMF - Federal Ministry of Finance - Bundesministerium für Finanzen