EIB and EBRD Sign Mutual Reliance Agreement to Streamline Project Financing

The move is designed to eliminate procedural overlaps, lower transaction costs, and make it significantly easier for clients to access funding and technical support from both institutions.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have solidified their strategic partnership by signing a landmark Mutual Reliance Agreement (MRA) focused on environmental and social (E&S) aspects. The signing took place in April 2025 in Washington, D.C., during the Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund.

A Strategic Shift in Development Financing

This agreement represents a pivotal shift in how multilateral development banks (MDBs) collaborate to finance sustainable infrastructure and development initiatives. By recognizing the compatibility of their environmental and social policy frameworks, the EIB and EBRD can now rely on each other to lead due diligence, project monitoring, and E&S assessments throughout the lifecycle of a project. This enables faster implementation, reduces administrative burdens, and ensures that project developers have a single point of contact for E&S matters.

The move is designed to eliminate procedural overlaps, lower transaction costs, and make it significantly easier for clients to access funding and technical support from both institutions. In practical terms, this will allow for increased efficiency in project preparation, appraisal, and supervision, while still ensuring that high environmental and social standards are rigorously maintained.

Anchored in Global Reform Efforts

The EIB-EBRD agreement is also a tangible response to ongoing global reform initiatives aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of MDBs. It closely aligns with recommendations in the G20’s "Roadmap for Better, Bigger, and More Effective MDBs," which advocates for greater coordination and joint efforts among MDBs, especially at the country level. By adopting MRAs, these institutions aim to multiply their collective impact on development goals while accelerating project delivery.

In addition, this new agreement echoes the spirit of the “Multilateral Development Banks: Working as a System for Greater Impact and Scale” Viewpoint Note jointly issued by leading MDBs in 2024. That note emphasized systemic collaboration to overcome global challenges, such as climate change and inequality, with greater scale and coherence.

Building on a Decade of Mutual Reliance

While this specific agreement is new, the concept of mutual reliance is not unfamiliar to the EIB. The Bank pioneered such arrangements over a decade ago, beginning with key partnerships with the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and Germany’s KfW. The latest EIB-EBRD agreement adds to a growing list of MRAs that the EIB has entered into, including those focusing on procurement with institutions such as the Council of Europe Development Bank, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the African Development Bank, among others.

Between 2015 and 2024, these procurement-focused MRAs enabled the implementation of approximately 77 projects with an estimated total investment cost of around EUR 30 billion. The new focus on environmental and social aspects is expected to further increase the scale, quality, and speed of project delivery.

Implications for Clients and Development Outcomes

For clients—ranging from national governments and municipalities to private sector developers—the benefits are tangible. With only one institution leading on E&S aspects, project development becomes less cumbersome and more predictable. Moreover, the backing of both the EIB and EBRD brings not only financial resources but also access to global best practices and technical expertise in environmental sustainability and social inclusion.

This streamlined process is expected to encourage more project proposals, particularly in countries where both banks operate, enhancing development outcomes in regions that most need infrastructure and economic support.

Looking Ahead

This agreement is likely to serve as a model for other MDBs considering enhanced collaboration through mutual reliance frameworks. It highlights how complementarity, rather than competition, among global financial institutions can lead to stronger, faster, and more inclusive development results.

As the global community continues to tackle cross-border challenges like climate change, energy transition, and sustainable urbanization, cooperation of this kind will be essential to scaling up resources, expertise, and impact.