The Group of Eight industrialized and developing nations is set to call on multilateral development banks and regional funds to broaden the scope of their cooperation to help "Arab Spring" countries make the transition to democracy and weather short-term economic instability, a draft statement of the G8 said. The G8 will urge the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to quickly set up a "transitional facility" to allow work to take place rapidly on the ground, the draft statement said. The G8 finance ministers, who are meeting in Marseilles in southern France Friday, will also review the $20 billion support pledge made in May at a meeting in Deauville, a resort town in northern France, the draft statement, which was seen by Dow Jones Newswires, said. At a meeting in Deauville at the end of May, the G8 pledged a $20 billion package for Egypt and Tunisia to be channeled through funding from international financial institutions, and formed a partnership with North African states to help support democratic aspirations borne out of Arab Spring revolutions. Since the Deauville gathering, the partnership has been extended to Jordan and Tunisia with Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UAE joining the framework "in supporting the countries engaged in political and economic transformation," the draft said. "We call on the multilateral development banks and regional development funds to further improve their coordination, especially at the country level, and enhance their support to meet the challenges faced by partnership countries." The G8 draft said recent events in the region "have challenged macroeconomic stability in the near term."
