Legal Transition Programme

The LTP focuses on developing the legal rules, institutions and culture on which a vibrant market-oriented economy depends. In particular, we do this through:

Standard-setting. The Bank participates in and contributes to international standard-setting initiatives.

Assessments of laws and practices. We monitor and analyse the status of legal transition in the economies where we invest and develop measurement tools to assess the legal risk for the Bank's investments. Specific sector assessments benchmark the development of key legal sectors in each economy against international or harmonised standards. Country law assessments, meanwhile, provide a means of judging the progress made by a single jurisdiction in making its commercial laws internationally acceptable.

Assisting governments. The Bank develops and implements technical cooperation projects in the economies where we invest. These are designed to support local authorities in establishing investor-friendly legal systems. Please see a full List of LTT projects undertaken between 1996 – 2020

Outreach. The EBRD collaborates widely in order to advance commercial law reform and promote best practice. The Bank coordinates closely with other international financial institutions, international organisations and bilateral assistance providers as well as a number of academic institutions in order to facilitate discussion and further publicise best practice. In addition, the LTP aims to build a body of knowledge of existing legal frameworks so as to make potential projects with governments more efficient as well as more relevant for the country itself.

The LTP focuses on the topics which are most relevant to the EBRD's investment activities and where we have accumulated the most experience. These are:

• Corporate Governance;

• Dispute resolution (which includes judicial sector, mediation and arbitration);

• Financial law (which includes access to finance, insolvency and debt restructuring and FinTech);

• Infrastructure (which includes natural resources, power and energy, ICT and PPPs);

• Public procurement; and

• Resource efficiency (which includes energy efficiency and climate change).

As part of the EBRD’s approach to policy engagement, the Programme helps to establish laws, regulations and institutions that support the development of a predictable investment climate in our region, which includes central Asia, central Europe and the Baltic states, eastern Europe and the Caucasus, south-eastern Europe, the southern and eastern Mediterranean, Turkey and Russia. Building on their deep understanding of commercial law and extensive knowledge of the region, for over two decades EBRD lawyers have continually advocated for better legislative and regulatory frameworks for economic activity, built capacity in state institutions and commercial courts, and disseminated lessons learned to policy-makers.

The work of the Legal Transition Programme contributes and is closely linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda. Legal and institutional reforms play a critical role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and bring change for the better in our economies of operation.

Please see the Legal Transition Programme Factsheet.