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Resolution 2302 (2019)
The Council of Europe Development Bank: contributing to building a more inclusive society
1. The Council of Europe Development
Bank (“the CEB” or “the bank”), set up in 1956 as a partial agreement
of the Council of Europe, serves its 41 member States by supporting
social investment. Ties with the Council of Europe are at the heart
of the CEB’s corporate identity and distinctive social mission in
the global family of international financial institutions. Those
ties have inspired thousands of field projects in the member States,
whilst also underpinning the CEB’s evolving mandate and strategic
vision.
2. Despite complexities in its economic, financial and regulatory
environment, its relatively small size and certain structural rigidities,
the CEB has shown a remarkable capacity to manage risks and support
social investment with high added value in its member States. Over
more than six decades of work, the bank has accumulated unique know-how
and comprehensive experience in handling projects across countries
with very different levels of development, institutional capacity
and social needs. The Parliamentary Assembly encourages the CEB
to keep scaling up its investment in countries which require more
technical assistance and support for institutional capacity building.
3. The Assembly fully supports the CEB’s continued efforts to
bolster sustainable and inclusive growth, the integration of refugees,
displaced persons and migrants, as well as its emphasis on “green
investment” in the light of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The Assembly
believes that the ongoing discussions on the CEB’s next development
plan for 2020-2022 represent the opportunity to highlight more explicitly
the role the CEB can play in the collective mobilisation of its
stakeholders towards the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals.
4. Moreover, considering the growing emphasis on social rights
within the Council of Europe, the Secretary General’s report to
the Committee of Ministers (Helsinki, 16-17 May 2019) and the stated
goal of building a more inclusive society, the Assembly believes
that national policy makers together with the CEB should focus on
the needs of the most disadvantaged population groups in both urban
and rural areas. The Assembly appreciates that the bank’s thematic
studies on the challenge of socio-economic inequalities in Europe
could guide policy decisions and help structure future projects
in this domain, with due attention to addressing the causes and
effects of growing inequalities that lead to poverty.
5. The Assembly regrets that certain member States of the Council
of Europe (Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Monaco, the Russian
Federation, Ukraine and the United Kingdom) have not yet joined
the CEB and encourages these eight States to reconsider their position
in the interest of their populations.
6. The Assembly commends the CEB’s increased use of innovative
financial instruments, direct financing to local authorities in
its member States and public-private partnerships for social and
sustainable development projects. Regarding the former, the Assembly
notes that, in 2017, the CEB launched its first cross-sectoral loan aimed
at giving local authorities greater flexibility to fund social infrastructure
across overlapping sectors; and issued its first social inclusion
bond, thus boosting its own capacity to fund priority projects in
the field of social housing, education and vocational training,
as well as job creation. As a result, local and regional authorities were
direct beneficiaries of CEB funding for about 33% of loans approved
in 2018.
7. The Assembly welcomes the CEB’s prudent management of capital
resources and reserves. It notes that a regular allocation of annual
profits to the reserves enables the bank to gradually increase its
capacity to co-finance more projects with high social value. This
capacity could increase even more significantly if the bank’s stakeholders
would consider keeping the door open to a new increase in the CEB’s
capital, replenishing more substantively the existing trust accounts
and mobilising additional support from donors and partner institutions.
8. The Assembly appreciates the gradual reform progress with
regard to the governance of the CEB in order to continue improving
its efficiency as expressed in Resolution 434 (2018) of the bank’s
Governing Board, in particular concerning the review of the competencies,
functions and number of vice-governors in due course. The Assembly
encourages the Governing Board to persevere in this direction, notably
in relation to the most consensual reform proposals, including those
put forward in the last CEB Strategic
Review.
9. The Assembly pays tribute to the devoted, professional and
efficient staff of the CEB who are committed to the bank’s mission
and essential to the pursuit of its ambitions for the future in
the smoothest way. This internal force based on “talent pools” with
a sound gender balance, work experience and national diversity should
be cultivated further by providing staff, both current and freshly
recruited, with adequate personal development opportunities through
training and mobility geared towards the mastering of new skills
and competences such as in the areas of artificial intelligence
and foresight.
10. In view of the above considerations, the Assembly recommends
that the CEB’s Governing Board:
10.1. continue
to rationalise the bank’s governance so as to optimise its internal
structures and procedures towards more flexible and rapid decision
making and a lighter voting system so as to update them in accordance
with modern management practice of peer organisations;
10.2. use the ongoing discussions on the CEB’s next development
plan for 2020-2022 to:
10.2.1. align the bank’s activities
more closely with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and
its 17 Sustainable Development Goals to enable institutional capacity
building in member States;
10.2.2. strengthen the bank’s strategy towards assisting its member
States to:
10.2.2.1. tackle more effectively the causes and
consequences of socio-economic inequalities;
10.2.2.2. achieve greater territorial cohesion in the delivery of
public services in both urban and rural areas, notably as regards
access to education, health care, housing, mobility and employment;
10.2.3. support the bank’s commitment to facilitating long-term
integration of migrants and refugees, in particular through labour
markets, educational and health-care facilities, as well as social
housing;
10.2.4. consider enhancing loan activities aimed at developing
multidimensional youth centres that provide vocational counselling
and social care, promote civic engagement, cultural diversity and
equal opportunities, and can offer child-care support for families
in poverty or at risk of poverty, based on Recommendation CM/Rec(2015)3
on access of young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods to social
rights;
10.2.5. enhance support for the bank’s efforts to generate new
business opportunities in a challenging low-interest-rate environment,
to raise funds via “thematic” bonds with specific social objectives
and to develop further the internal environmental, social and governance
screening/evaluation tools to help transform risks into opportunities;
10.2.6. ensure that, when screening projects for social impact,
the CEB also refers, where relevant, to the annual conclusions of
the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) in respect of individual
countries;
10.2.7. foster the CEB’s outreach to the Congress of Local and
Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe in order to tap into
opportunities to identify potential projects at local level and optimise
the implementation of projects already approved;
10.3. consider reviewing the pertinence of the current criteria
for defining the CEB’s target countries and possibly update them
in the light of progress in these countries’ development;
10.4. strengthen links with the Council of Europe and explore
options for improving the visibility of the CEB, such as through
common communication channels, and attracting new States to join
the bank;
10.5. exploit opportunities to use more extensively the know-how
generated by various research institutions and think tanks, in particular
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
11. The Assembly looks forward to receiving the written reply
of the Governing Board of the CEB to the above recommendations.