Pointers for the EBRDs strategy on Municipal and Environmental Infrastructure (MEI)

With these pointers, Bankwatch analyses the EBRD's current Municipal and Environmental Infrastructure (MEI) policy and critically examines its implementation in the sectors of water, waste, transport, district heating and other social services. We offer recommendations that - if included in the revised policy - would help taking into account the inescapable need for a low-carbon development and the lessons from the global economic crisis.

A market economy alone is no guarantee that peoples lives will be improved in a sustainable way. At the same time MEI improvements per se are crucial for building healthy economies. It is therefore not necessary to cling too tightly to the EBRDs market and private sector mandate within this sector, but rather to support all projects which best contribute to the delivery of good quality public services.