Norway is a founding member of the EBRD and a strong strategic partner of the Bank, often at the forefront of new initiatives.
It was the first donor to establish a technical cooperation fund with the EBRD in 1991 and and has since contributed over €335 million in donor funds – including most recently a substantial contribution to EBRD’s work in Ukraine.
Norway and the EBRD: at a glance
€335mn donor funds supporting EBRD operations
1.25% capital share
€2.84bn Norway-EBRD investments
Norway provides donor funds both bilaterally and through multi-donor funds. Its bilateral fund primarily finances environmental, energy and financial sector projects in the Western Balkans. A new dedicated fund was established in 2018 to support skills development and SME financing in the same region.
Norway is a strong supporter of EBRD multi-donor funds, contributing to the EBRD Water Fund, the Sustainable Infrastructure Fund (SIF), the European Western Balkans Joint Fund (EWBJF), the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P), the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP), the Southern and eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) Multi-Donor Account, the Ukraine Stabilisation and Sustainable Growth Multi-Donor Account (Ukraine MDA), in 2020 the Small Business Impact Fund (SBIF) and the EBRD Crisis Response Special Fund. In 2022, Norway provided NOK 2 billion (approximately €191 million) investment grants to Ukraine’s Naftogaz through the EBRD Crisis Response Special Fund (CRSF) to support Ukraine.
Norway is an important source of foreign direct investment in the EBRD’s countries of operations. The value of joint Norway-EBRD investment stood at around €2.84 billion as of February 2023. EBRD finance accounted for €1.57 billion, and Norwegian investment accounted for €1.286 billion. The majority of these deals were in the private sector.
The joint investment has been strong in Poland and regionally, followed by Egypt, Georgia and in the Slovak Republic. Broken down by industry, the joint investment has been the strongest in sustainable infrastructure, industry, commerce and agribusiness, and financial institutions.
Norwegian banks are also involved in the Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP), through which the EBRD guarantees the payment of trade finance instruments issued by banks in its countries of operations to foreign confirming banks. Since inception, the TFP has supported 46 export and import transactions for Norwegian companies for a total €19.21 million, for transactions which were initiated by banks in the EBRD countries of operation and confirmed by banks in both Norway and abroad. Four Norwegian banks and branches of banks have joined the programme as Confirming Banks (all figures as at December 2022).
From 2018 to 2022, entities from Norway won 19 consultancy contracts worth €2,281,018.00.
