Council agrees to increase EU’s shares in European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

The Council adopted a decision increasing the EU’s shares in the capital of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

This capital increase should ensure the Bank's support for resilience and reconstruction in Ukraine beyond 2023 and the continued support in all of its countries of operation.

The EU will subscribe to 12 102 additional shares of €10 000 each before 30 July 2025. By then, the Board of Directors of the EBRD may postpone the date of subscription to the 31 December 2025 at the latest. The subscription will be paid in five equal yearly instalments. 

The decision will extend the geographic scope of EBRD operations to sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq in a limited and incremental manner. 

In addition, the decision will remove the statutory capital limitation on ordinary operations in order to entrust the EBRD Board of Directors to establish and maintain any appropriate limits with respect to capital adequacy metrics.

Next steps

The decision will enter into force on the third day after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU.

Background

On 15 December 2023, the Board of Governors of the EBRD decided to increase the authorised capital stock of the EBRD by € 4 billion in order to maintain enough capital to sustain a reasonable level of activity in the EBRD countries of operation within statutory limits.

The authorised capital stock of the EBRD increased by 400 000 paid-in shares, and EBRD members can subscribe to a number of whole shares, pro rata to their existing shareholding.

Prior to that capital increase, the EU held 90 044 shares, each share having a par value of € 10 000.

On 22 January 2024, the Commission submitted to the Council and the European Parliament a proposal for the EU to subscribe to 12 102 additional shares of €10 000 in the capital of the EBRD.

The Commission requested the European Parliament and the Council to apply the urgency procedure for this file. The European Parliament adopted the text without modifying the substance of the proposal on 14 March 2024 and the Council adopted the same text, thus closing the adoption procedure.