Northern Dimension: Meeting of heads of International Financial Institutions in Helsinki

The theme of the meeting was “The Northern Dimension: Financing Infrastructure and Environmental Investment”

The meeting was chaired by Jón Sigurðsson, President and CEO of NIB. Among the participants were Philippe Maystadt, President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxembourg, Jean Lemierre, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London and Sven Sandström, Managing Director, the World Bank in Washington D.C. Representatives of the European Commission (EC) and the Governments holding the EU Presidency in the year 2001, Sweden and Belgium, and of the Government of Finland also attended the meeting.

The meeting decided to establish a working group to develop further a proposal to establish a “Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership” among the IFIs and the EC to support and promote high priority environmental projects in the transition countries of the Northern Dimension area. The working group will submit its report before the end of June 2001. NIB will present a progress report to the EU Foreign Ministers’ conference on the Northern Dimension in Luxembourg on 9 April 2001.