The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) invites civil society organisations, its clients, partners and all interested people to comment on draft revisions of the Bank’s Environmental and Social Policy and Public Information Policy.

The full texts of policies and a detailed explanation of the current revision process are available at www.ebrd.com/about/policies/enviro/policy/review/index.htm and www.ebrd.com/about/policies/pip/.

To ensure free participation of all interested parties in the public consultation process and secure optimal quality of the revisions, EBRD is organising six one-day public consultation meetings.

Public Consultation Meetings will be held as follows:
Budapest: Wednesday, March 26, 2008¸ from 9.00 am at Hotel Mercure Budapest Buda, Krisztina Korut 41-43, 1013 Budapest, Hungary.
Belgrade: Friday, March 28, 2008¸ from 9.00 am at Best Western Hotel M, 56a Boulevard Oslobodenja, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
Moscow: Friday, March 28, 2008, from 9.00 am at Hotel Izmailovo Gamma-Delta, 71 Izmailovsky highway, 105187, Moscow, Russian Federation.
Tbilisi: Tuesday, April 1, 2008¸ from 9.00 am at Sheraton Metechi Palace Hotel, Issani, Tbilisi 0103, Georgia.
Bishkek: Friday, April 4, 2008¸ from 9.00 am at Hotel Alpinist, 113 Panfilov Street, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
London: Tuesday, April 8, 2008, from 9.00 am at EBRD’s Headquarters, One Exchange Square, London EC2A 2JN, United Kingdom.

The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) will organise the public consultation meetings, and will offer independent facilitation.

Participation in the public consultation is open to any interested person or organisation. In order to ease meetings’ preparation, participants are kindly asked to register online by Friday, March 14, 2008.

The EBRD has made available limited financial support for the travel of selected civil society participants in the public meetings according to criteria agreed with the REC. The responsibility of selecting funding recipients is the REC’s. For registration and information about financial support criteria and application deadline, please email ebrd_consultation@rec.org.

Comments, suggestions or recommendations on the revised draft polices are also welcome electronically to E&SPolicy@ebrd.com for the draft Environmental and Social Policy and to PIPReviewComment@ebrd.com for the draft Public Information Policy, or in writing to Ms Biljana Radonjic Ker-Lindsay, EBRD, One Exchange Square, London EC2A 2JN, United Kingdom.

All the comments received at public meetings, via post and email will be taken into account by the EBRD as part of the decision-making process to adopt the new policies. The EBRD will prepare a report on the comments and the responses, summarised by topics, which will be published on the Bank's website following the consultation period.