Poland is one of the EBRD’s stand-out success stories so it is fitting that in a year of historic anniversaries for Central and Eastern Europe the country should host the Bank’s Annual Meeting and Business Forum.
“The Polish dream was to build democracy and the market at the same time,” said Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, the Polish Prime Minister in 1991, in a new EBRD video. “And the EBRD stands very much for multiparty democracy.”
2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain and the 10th anniversary of the accession of Poland and seven other Central and East European countries (the EU8) to the European Union and both momentous events will be on the minds of those attending this week’s proceedings.
They should also reflect on the role of Poland, our host, in the region’s changes of the last quarter of a century and the way the EBRD has stood by its side throughout.
“The EBRD was against any authoritarian regime and that gave a completely new angle to the transformation and assistance process provided by different institutions over the last decades,” Mr Bielecki said.
The EBRD has invested €6.8 billion in Poland over the years and continues to support the Polish economy. We are proud to have contributed to the progress and prosperity that those coming to Warsaw this week will see for themselves.
