• EBRD to hold its 35th Annual Meeting and Business Forum in Riga on 5-7 June
• Event returns to Latvia 26 years after first taking place in its capital
• Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health, will make guest appearance

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will host its 35th Annual Meeting and Business Forum in Riga this week, with the theme of “Volatile to versatile – economies innovating in a changing world”.

The event, which takes place on 5-7 June, will assemble the Bank’s shareholders, partners and clients, including government officials, financial and corporate executives, entrepreneurs, civil society and media from across its regions.

Against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world, from geopolitical and macroeconomic pressures to the advent of artificial intelligence, the event will explore how the countries where the EBRD invests are adapting to new realities.

This is the second time Latvia will host the EBRD’s flagship annual gathering, with Riga previously welcoming participants in 2000. Holding the event in Latvia once again – one of the EBRD’s earliest countries of operation – reaffirms the region’s strategic relevance for the Bank.

Latvia’s President, Edgars Rinkēvičs, will address the Board of Governors’ opening session alongside European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity and Chair of the Board of Governors for 2025-26, Valdis Dombrovskis, and EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso.

The event will also welcome Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health (UNSGSA), as a special guest. In her role as UNSGSA, Her Majesty will address the importance of building financial systems that help all people meet their daily needs, strengthen their resilience, invest in their futures and build long-term prosperity and confidence – as well as the role that institutions such as the EBRD can play in supporting efforts to advance financial health.

This year’s meeting will see the EBRD’s Governors discuss the Bank’s role in supporting crisis- and conflict-affected economies, and the ways it can respond to ongoing global macroeconomic pressures.

At their plenary session on Saturday 6 June, they will be asked to reaffirm the EBRD’s strong support for Ukraine and endorse the Bank’s continued role at the forefront of international efforts to support the country’s wartime resilience and future reconstruction. The EBRD has deployed close to €10 billion in Ukraine’s real economy since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 and is ready to step up investments once reconstruction begins.

Governors will also be asked to back the Bank’s broader response to conflict and its new strategic focus on economic governance.

As well as the Annual Meeting’s institutional business, the Business Forum will hold a wide range of discussion panels on topics including the role of international financial institutions in a changing world, the skills of the future, technology and the space race, capital mobilisation and the energy transition.

A high-level event on Ukraine will see Ms Renaud-Basso, Mr Dombrovskis and Ukraine’s Minister of Finance, Serhii Marchenko, discuss the country’s reconstruction pathway and European future.

Anyone unable to attend the events in person will be able to follow via a livestream and on demand after the event.