European Union Institutions

The Brussels Office manages the day-to-day relations of the World Bank Group with the European Union (EU) Institutions. These include the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament, headquartered in Brussels, and the European Investment Bank headquartered in Luxembourg.

The Brussels office also reaches out to the numerous constituencies which gravitate around the EU, including NGOs, the press corps, the private sector, labor unions, youth organizations etc.

In addition, the Brussels office is mandated to handle bilateral relations with three European countries, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, the so-called Benelux countries.

The Brussels Office mainly works to deepen the partnership with the European Commission (EC), the EU’s executive branch which manages important instruments affecting developing countries (e.g. on aid & trade). The Brussels team works to help the Operational Vice-Presidencies of the World Bank expand ties with their EC counterparts dealing with Africa, Asia, the Middle-East & North Africa, and to a lesser extent Latin-America. The very rich collaboration with the EU in Eastern and Central Europe and Central Asia is handled by the joint EC/WB office for South-East Europe.

The Brussels Office also works to deepen the dialogue with the EC on thematic issues key to development, such as trade, debt relief, education, health, migration, etc. where the EC plays a leading role on behalf of EU Member States, both in terms of policy orientation and implementation. In financial terms, the EC is also an important co-financier of World Bank projects and programs, through parallel financing and Bank-managed Trust Funds. The Brussels Office monitors closely this relationship and helps operationalize these transactions where possible.

In recent years, with the growing influence of the European Parliament (EP), the World Bank has also invested time and effort in engaging with Euro-deputies and Parliamentary bodies relevant to and interested in its work. Furthermore, relations with the Council of the EU have also expanded through the complex set-up of the six-monthly rotating presidencies of Member States, as well as through the Council’s permanent Secretariat and its High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana.

The Brussels office has also supported the Bank’s effort to strengthen its collaboration with the EU’s financing arm, the European Investment Bank (EIB), based in Luxembourg, with which several operational Memoranda of Understanding have been signed.

In addition, the Brussels office also organizes numerous events, conferences, expert roundtables, flagship report launches, media interviews etc. with the large numbers of Brussels-based ‘policy-makers’, lobbyists, think-tanks, journalists and others interested in development.