Transforming Markets: A Development Bank for the 21st Century – A History of the EBRD, Volume 2 by Andrew Kilpatrick and Anthony Williams

Part I
 An Evolving Landscape

Chapter 1
 Pivot to Turkey

 Introduction
 In the autumn of 2008, the EBRD made one of the most important deci-
sions of its then 17-year history. The Bank that had been set up specifically 
to support the countries of former communist eastern Europe voted to start 
investing in Turkey, a country without a communist past. 
It was a controversial decision that saw three years of shareholder wran-
gling before a consensus could be reached. The debate surrounding accept-
ing Turkey as a country of operations was sometimes emotional, with some 
fearing that by moving away from the post-communist sphere the EBRD 
was losing its soul and abandoning the rich heritage of a common cultural 
and historical past.
 The discussion was also fiercely political, pitching key shareholders one 
against another. The notion that the EBRD would start financing projects 
in Turkey challenged the assumption that the EBRD’s mandate was to per-
form a specific task in a clearly defined region and that it would close its 
doors on completion of that job. The USA and the United Kingdom, in par-
ticular, were initially firmly of the view that the admission of Turkey would 
overturn the very finite essence of the Bank’s original remit.
 The period leading up to the decision was one of intense debate among 
shareholders about the EBRD’s future. Decisions over Turkey, and the geo-
graphic expansion it entailed, became intertwined with other key questions 
that divided shareholders at the time—the graduation of countries that 
became EU member states and payment of a dividend out of profits—both 
of which potentially constrained the Bank’s forward path.
 To any external observer, much of the discussion would have seemed arcane: 
an almost theological analysis of the EBRD’s mission and a semantic dissection

Transforming Markets: A Development Bank for the 21st Century – A History of the EBRD, Volume 2 by Andrew Kilpatrick and Anthony Williams