Ukraine’s accession to the Council of Europe Development Bank will contribute to the development of new housing and social infrastructure programmes, participation in international investment projects and attraction of foreign investments to provide decent housing for Ukrainians affected by the war.

This was stated by the head of the Interagency Working Group on Ukraine’s Membership in the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine Oleksiy Chernyshov during the opening of the annual joint meeting of the Administrative Council and the Board of the Council of Europe.

“With the support of such a powerful European institution, which has many years of experience in financing housing programmes for displaced people in various European countries, we will be able to solve the housing needs of families who were left homeless due to the war faster and more efficiently,” Oleksiy Chernyshov emphasized.

The minister noted that according to preliminary data, about 110,000 individual houses, about 15,000 apartment buildings, more than 1,100 schools, 650 kindergartens and 700 healthcare facilities were destroyed or damaged as a result of hostilities.

During the meeting, Governor of the CEB Carlo Monticelli requested the Bank’s Administrative Council to adopt a decision on special conditions for Ukraine to acquire membership in the Bank as soon as possible.

This opens up opportunities for the use of socially oriented experience, expertise and potential of the CEB for the implementation of projects to finance housing programmes for displaced persons – victims of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, social service delivery and reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure, in particular hospitals, schools and kindergartens.

Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov noted that CEB was the first multilateral development bank that allocated grants to provide immediate assistance to displaced persons in Ukraine. He thanked the leadership of the CEB and its member states for supporting Ukraine in such a difficult time.

In March, MinRegion initiated the formation at the Governmental level of the Interagency Working Group on Ukraine’s membership in the Council of Europe Development Bank.

Reference

The Council of Europe Development Bank was founded in 1956 by eight member states of the Council of Europe to solve the refugee problems faced by Europe after the Second World War. The main goal of the Bank’s housing projects is to promote access to decent and affordable housing for low-income and middle-income people through the provision of loans or reduction of the housing shortage (by building new housing or restoring the existing housing stock).

Since 1956, the total amount of the Bank’s approved projects in the housing sector has reached 11 billion euros. Currently, the Council of Europe Development Bank is implementing 13 projects in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Macedonia.