May 11 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's caretaker government said on Thursday it will propose to parliament to approve the country's participation in the amount of 62.2 million euro ($34.8 million/31.8 million euro) in the planned capital increase of the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB).
As a shareholder of CEB, Bulgaria is expected to contribute 13.7 million euro of paid-in capital, along with 48.5 million euro of subscribed capital, the cabinet said in a statement.
The contribution will maintain at 1.14% Bulgaria's share of the bank's subscribed capital.
CEB is made up of 42 member states of which 22 are in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe and are its target countries. In December, the social development lender's governing board approved an overall capital increase of up to 4.25 billion euro as part of its new strategic framework for the 2023-2027 period, which will include assistance for migrants and host countries as well as potential new projects in Ukraine.
In the wake of the Ukraine war, this will be the first time that the CEB, established in 1956, will take cash contributions from member states in order to increase its paid-in capital to 1.81 billion euro from 0.61 billion euro. At the same time, the CEB’s subscribed capital will increase to 9.73 billion euro from 5.48 billion euro. The subscription period for the capital increase will run until December 31, 2023.
Paris-based CEB, which has total assets of 31.5 billion euro, grants loans to member states and to financial institutions and local authorities in these states in order to fund projects in the social sector. In Bulgaria, past loans granted to the Bulgarian Development Bank have been used to finance job creation and preservation at small, medium and micro enterprises (MSMEs) and for energy efficiency projects for residential buildings.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)