LONDON (Reuters) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will take a tougher approach with reform-shy governments under a new strategy to be announced next month, the bank's head said on Tuesday.
Speaking at an event organised by OMFIF, EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti said the lack of progress in some of the countries it invests in such as Ukraine showed the need for a new approach.
"We at the EBRD have come to the conclusion that we need to be at the forefront in our relationship with governments in our region to push the cause of structural reform more strongly than (has) perhaps been done in the past ten years."
"We have a responsibility and a challenge to face up to the reform process, which is why in our medium-term strategy which is to be approved by our governors in a few weeks' time in Warsaw, it's all about re-adjusting transition."
In his speech he mentioned Hungary and Bulgaria as countries where energy reforms were stuck, while privatisations had stumbled in Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
The bank's last transition report in November was titled "Stuck in Transition".
(Reporting by Marc Jones; editing by Sujata Rao and Carolyn Cohn)