BERLIN: Germany supports expanding the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's (EBRD) remit to the Middle East and North Africa to help democratic reform there, the German finance ministry said on Wednesday. The EBRD's annual meeting in Kazakhstan this week is due to draw up a plan to expand lending to the region, where protests have toppled a series of authoritarian leaders and are threatening to overturn others. The EBRD traditionally focuses on Eastern Europe and central Asia but Germany said the bank would discuss getting involved in the southern Mediterranean "in reaction to the democratization process under way in this region." "In light of the dramatic changes taking place in the area, the Federal Government would support extending the remit of the bank ....," Berlin said in a statement. It added that commitment to "core principles of democracy, political pluralism and the market economy" and their implementation would be a condition. Egypt and Morocco would be among the first candidates and had already expressed an interest in EBRD help, it said. The EBRD's 61 member countries and institutions raised its capital by 50 percent to €30 billion ($43 billion) this year. Germany said expanding its remit would not require any further increase. EBRD sources say the governors will most likely approve a request to expand operations to Egypt, already a contributing member to the bank, along with Morocco, with investments growing to 3 billion euros a year in North Africa.
