Sustainable Development Agendas of Regional International Organizations: The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development and the Eurasian Development Bank

Figures & data

Table 1. The Founding Document of the EBRD 1991

Articles	Quotes and Phrasing in the EBRD 1991
Article 2 (7)	EBRD will “promote in the full range of its activities environmentally sound and sustainable development.”
Article 11 (1.5)	Loans are made dependent on a sound environmental agenda by the loanee “by making […] loans and providing technical assistance […] including environmental programmes, necessary for private sector development and the transition to a market oriented economy.”
Article 35 (2)	“The Bank shall report annually on the environmental impact of its activities and may publish such other reports as it deems desirable to advance its purpose.”
Explanatory Notes: Article 2 (4)	“In paragraph 1, subparagraph (vii), Delegates recognized the serious environmental problems in Central and Eastern Europe, and emphasized that principles of environmentally sound development must be integrated into the full range of the Bank’s operations. Thus Delegates intended ‘in the full range of its activities’ to include all of the Bank’s activities, including technical assistance and all special operations, and not merely that the Bank should be able to provide support directly for specific environmental projects.” (3 times)
Explanatory Notes: Article 13 (1)	“This statement of policies would cover, among other things: the extent to which the Bank would be expected to go to satisfy itself that the funds which it invested were used efficiently and economically and, where such funds were used for the purchase of goods, that the goods were bought on reasonable terms and in favorable markets; and the detailed requirements for the identification, appraisal, monitoring, implementation and ex-post evaluation of all projects, including their economic, technical, managerial, financial and environmental aspects.”
Explanatory Notes: Article 35 (2)	“Delegates were conscious that there might be little to report initially on the Bank’s environmental impact and that the form of the first annual reports on this subject might be very different from later versions.”

Table 2. The EDB Document 2007 (the First Document that Mentioned Environment; Issued 1 Year Later After the Founding Agreement of the EDB of 2006)

Sub-Sections	SECTION 12 (page 17): Social and Environmental* Responsibility (of the Bank)
12.1	“Social and environmental responsibility of the Bank is understood as a voluntary contribution of the Bank to social, economic, and environmental aspects of the development of society connected directly with the main activity of the Bank outside of the legally defined minimum.”
12.2	“The bank’s compliance with [principles of] social and environmental responsibility is controlled by the Bank [itself] while considering the investment projects.”
12.3	“Annual governing board [meaning of ‘ежегодное правление’ is not clear] of the Bank informs the council of the Bank about the Bank’s compliance with the principles of environmental and social responsibility in the annual report of the Bank’s board.”

* In Russian, “environmental” and “ecological” are translated as the same word: ekologicheskii.

Note: All cursive, bold, brackets and parentheses, and inserted clarifications are ours.

Table 3. Summary of Environmental Agenda in Legal Documents of the EBRD and the EDB

	The EBRD	The EDB
Founding Documents	1991: Mentions environment 8 times.	2006: Does not mention environment at all.
Documents are updated for the first time / or further developed	2006: EBRD Basic Document was changed in 2006: article 1.**** Mentions environment 8 times.	2007: Corporate Governance Regulations of the Eurasian Development Bank: Mentions environment 6 times
Documents are updated for the 2nd time / or further developed	2012: EBRD Basic Document was changed in 2012: article 18.**** Mentions environment 8 times.	2012: Eurasian Development Bank: Environmental and Social Policy Mentions environment 53 times.
Documents are updated for the 3rd time / or new document appeared	2013 EBRD Basic Document was changed in 2013: article 1.**** Mentions environment 8 times.	2013: Regulation on the Investment Activities of the Eurasian Development Bank Mentions environment twice.
Documents are updated for the 4th time / or further developed	2019:** Strategy Implementation Plan 2020–2022. Mentions environment 10 times.	2017:* Strategy of the Eurasian Development Bank for the period from 2018 to 2022. Mentions environment 4 times.

* and ** Do not have a publication dates. Likely to be 2016–2017 for EDB and 2019 for EBRD Strategies.

*** We cannot find anything older or newer than the 2013 EBRD Basic Document. EBRD indicates only the changes in the 2006, 2012, and 2013 texts in Articles 1 and 18. **** Updated Article 1 is titled “Purpose” and sets out the remit of the Bank, its structure, and where it can operate; Updated Article 18 covers “Special Funds” and how countries can apply for these.

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EDB). 1991. “Basic Documents of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.” https://www.ebrd.com/news/publications/institutional-documents/basic-documents-of-the-ebrd.html.

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Eurasian Development Bank (EDB). 2006. Soglashenie: ob uchrezhdenii evraziiskogo banka razvitiia [Agreement: On the Establishment of the Eurasian Development Bank]. January 12. Almaty: Eurasian Development Bank.

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Eurasian Development Bank (EDB). 2007. Polozhenie o korporativnom upravlenii evraziiskogo banka razvitiia [Regulation on the Corporate Governance of the Eurasian Development Bank]. October 8. Almaty: Eurasian Development Bank.

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Eurasian Development Bank (EDB). 2012. Politika ekologicheskoi i sotsial’noi otvetstvennosti evraziiskogo banka razvitiya [Environmental and Social Policy Liability of the Eurasian Development Bank]. May 16. Almaty: Eurasian Development Bank.

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Eurasian Development Bank (EDB). 2013. Polozhenie ob izvestitsionnoi deiatel’nosti evraziiskogo banka razvitiia [Regulation on the Investment Activities of the Eurasian Development Bank]. June 26. Almaty: Eurasian Development Bank.

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Eurasian Development Bank (EDB). 2017. Strategiia evraziiskogo banka razvitiia na period s 2018 po 2022 god [Strategy of the Eurasian Development Bank for the Period from 2018 to 2022]. July 23. Almaty: Eurasian Development Bank.

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