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Introduction:

The Infrastructure Steering Group created under the auspices of the Stability Pact has been instrumental in helping the countries of the region to develop regional approaches in transport, energy and environment sectors, while ensuring as far as possible that those regional approaches respected the criteria of economic and financial sustainability. Demonstrable progress had been made in this respect, with the countries having signed with the Commission a regional transport strategy including an agreement about a core regional transport network. The countries of the region have also endorsed the Treaty establishing an Energy Community for SEE and had used the Regional Environmental Center to work together on environmental issues.

Given that all the countries of SEE are to varying degrees clearly on the path to EU integration and considering that the EU agenda is therefore highly prominent in all countries, the ISG stakeholders agreed that it was time to upgrade the level of the ISG and transform it into an advisory, informative and non-binding forum referred to as the IFI Advisory Group. In particular the objectives are to:

• develop more strategic views in line with the EU integration objectives of the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA) countries;
• extend its scope to address the development of national infrastructure but also address cross-cutting issues such as social affairs
• extend participation to all actors present in the countries.

The stakeholders of ISG met on 15 March 2007 to inaugurate the first IFI Advisory Group and discussed the trappings of such forum (insert minutes of 15 March meeting).  Further to these discussions a scope of work was developed (insert IFIAG scope of work final) as well as terms of references (insert IFIAG WG terms of reference).

Scope of the IFI Advisory Group

Purpose

The purpose of the IFI Advisory Group is to support and improve the overall co-operation between the International Financial Institutions and the European Commission in the candidate and potential candidate countries, including co-operation under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA).

The Group builds on the experience of the regional Infrastructure Steering Group (ISG).  Its scope is extended beyond regional transport, energy and environmental projects.

Scope of work

The Group has an advisory function and is expected to:

• Provide advice on issues high on the political agenda at both regional and national level on the basis of specific needs;
• Address issues linked to the development of infrastructure, national and regional, including harmonisation of approaches to infrastructure projects;
• Exchange information and experience and provide advice on the design of new initiatives and programmes; and,
• Identify/explore possibilities of improving regional financial co-operation between the Commission and IFIs based on the comparative advantages of each institution in the region.

As to the sectoral and thematic scope of the IFI-AG, attention continues to be placed on cross-border issues and regional initiatives in the transport, energy and environment sectors. New sectors are also addressed, including social sectors (health, education and employment) as well as horizontal issues, such as fiscal sustainability and the right financing-mix, coherence of IFIs support with national public expenditure programmes, preventive measures against crowd-outs of social expenditures, Public Private Partnerships, transparency in bidding procedures and overall Public Investment prioritisation.

Structure

• IFI Advisory Group – Plenary session chaired by DG ENLARG.
• Secretariat – administered by EC/WB Joint Office http://www.seerecon.org/

• IFIAG Working Group on Transport – chaired by DG ENLARG.
• IFIAG Working Group on Energy – chaired by DG ENLARG.
• IFIAG Working Group on Environment – chaired by DG ENLARG.
• IFIAG Working Group on Social Affairs – chaired by DG ENLARG.

Participants:

• European Commission – DG ENLARG, DG ECFIN, DG ENV, DG EMPL, DG REGIO, DG TREN
  • http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm
• European Investment Bank (EIB)
  • http://www.bei.org/
• European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
  • http://www.ebrd.com/
• International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)
  • http://www.worldbank.org/
• International Finance Corporation (NIB)
  • http://www.nib.int/en/index.html
• Nordic Environment Finance Corporation
  • http://www.nefco.org/
• Council of Europe Development Bank
  • http://www.coebank.org/
• Black Sea Trade and Development Bank
  • http://www.bstdb.org/default1.htm
• Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW)
  • http://www.kfw.de/EN_Home/index.jsp
• Regional Co-operation Council (successor of the Stability Pact)
• Regional Secretariat (to be established in 2008)

Meetings

• Working Group on Transport held on 10 September 2007
  • (minutes and Chairman’s conclusions )
• Working Group on Energy held on 25 September 2007
  • (minutes and Chairman’s conclusions )
• Working Group on Environment held on 26 October 2007
  • (minutes and Chairman’s conclusions )
• Consultation with International Financial Institutions on National and Regional Strategies and Programming 2008-2010 held on 10-11 December 2007
  • (IFI days conclusions )
• Working Group on Social Affairs held on 22 January 2008
  • (Chairman’s conclusions )
• Plenary Session of the IFI Advisory Group held on 23 January 2008
  • (annex I, II, III, IV, V and IPF final concept )

For further information,

please Contact:

Regional Cooperation Council