Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 March 2022
204. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Finance if the Irish director of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development will be seeking the imposition by the bank of sanctions against Russia; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12585/22]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (or the EBRD) was established in 1991 to provide finance to help build market economies in former Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Since then, the Bank has progressively and significantly extended its geographical scope of operations and is currently active in nearly 40 countries from central Europe to central Asia and the southern and eastern Mediterranean, plus the West Bank and Gaza. Seventy-one countries, including Russia and Belarus have a shareholding in the EBRD.
Ireland is a founding member of the Bank and is part of a multi country constituency with Denmark, Lithuania and Kosovo. In this regard, the Danish representative, currently holds the rotating Director post, which acts on behalf of our constituency. That said, there is an Advisor, seconded from my Department, to the constituency office in London, who works closely with the Director. Officials in my Department engage extensively and constructively with these EBRD officials and I am kept appraised on an ongoing basis of developments within the EBRD.
With regard to the specific query, on 1 March, the EBRD Board of Directors approved a recommendation to the Board of Governors for the suspension and modification of access to Bank resources by the Russian Federation and Belarus. I understand that if the Board of Governors adopts this recommendation, the EBRD would not finance any new operations, would not implement any technical cooperation projects and would suspend or cancel any future disbursements under existing operations in both Russia and Belarus. This resolution will require the support of 49 Governors, two thirds of the Board Governors with three quarters of the voting power, and a vote is expected on it shortly.
The Deputy can rest assured that I fully support this proposal, and I welcome that the EBRD is acting in such a decisive manner on this issue.
