the question refers to the commission view on possible european economic and financial support to countries of eastern and south-eastern europe hard hit by the global economic crisis
i am replying on behalf of my colleague commissioner almunia
the sharp economic downturn in a number of countries in this region can indeed have an adverse impact on the economies of the same european union member states in particular those whose commercial banks have extended often through their local subsidiary significant credits to enterprises and households in the countries of the region
it has first to be noted that economic and financial conditions differ greatly among these countries
the commission's response to the crisis could not therefore be formulated globally but has taken into account the situation of each country
regarding candidate and potential candidate countries of south-eastern europe large amounts of technical assistance supporting structural reforms and institution-building have been programmed for the period two thousand and seven twenty thirteen eur nine point one billion as you know under the instrument for pre-accession ipa
the commission is also implementing a eur one hundred and fifty million crisis response package financed under this instrument which aims to leverage in the short term an amount of eur five hundred million in loans from international financial institutions
the package includes measures ranging from the provision of micro-credit and sme financing to energy efficiency and specific technical assistance for financial sector supervision and financial regulation
in order to further support the real economy the commission the eib the ebrd and the council of europe development bank have jointly developed an infrastructure initiative that provides technical assistance and cofinancing to priority infrastructure investments in transport energy environment and social sectors
the initiative has been accelerated and implementation is now starting
it is a first step towards a western balkans investment framework that will also include investments in other socioeconomic sectors like smes or energy efficiency
in the countries of eastern europe covered by the european neighbourhood policy ukraine belarus moldova and the three caucasus countries the european union instruments available to deal with the needs of the financial sector are more limited
yet here too the eu provides substantial technical assistance through the national and regional programmes of the european neighbourhood and partnership instrument in support of the joint action plans under the european neighbourhood policy
in order to further help the real economy the neighbourhood investment facility has been designed to bring together grants from the enpi programmes and the european union member states with loans from the european public financial institutions
this instrument has provided eur seventy-one million in grants in two thousand and eight which underpinned large infrastructure projects worth around eur two point seven four billion
let me now say a few words about the support to the commercial banks in the region being provided by specialised financial institutions
here the ebrd is the most active and it is mobilising its full panoply of instruments including equity and short-term debt
the eib has no mandate towards direct bank capitalisation in this region and its activity is limited to the sectors of transport telecommunications energy and environmental infrastructure
the mandate does not cover smes
much of the financial support to the economies of the region is provided by the bretton woods institutions primarily the international monetary fund imf
the imf is making available large amounts of financing in support of comprehensive stabilisation programmes
the commission feels that the role of the imf in fighting the consequences of the crisis is very important
finally a number of pre-accession and neighbourhood countries have requested macroeconomic assistance from the european union
the commission is currently examining how best to support those countries that have also agreed a stabilisation programme with the international monetary fund
