DATE: 4 p.m., Feb. 16, 2006.

EVENT: Jean Lemierre, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, will discuss” 1991-2006: 15 Years of Economic Transition as Viewed by the EBRD” at the Citigroup Lecture.

EBRD, set up in 1991 to fund investment in former communist states in Europe and Soviet Union, is continuing to shift the bulk of its new investments toward southeastern Europe, central Asia and Russia, and away from central Europe, according to a Dow Jones report. The U.S. government has asked the EBRD to stop investing in the eight European Union members within the next two years, arguing that private sector finance is readily available in those countries. That move, however, has been rejected by most of the development bank’s shareholders.

Before accepting his EBRD position in 2000, Lemierre was head of the French Private Office of the Minister of Economy and Finance and director of France’s Treasury.

The Citigroup Lecture Series is an endowed program that was established by a gift from the Citigroup Foundation, in honor of former President Gerald R. Ford. The lecture series brings distinguished policy makers to the Ford School, providing students and faculty the opportunity to discuss critical current issues with individuals who have participated in both politics and policy making.

Previous Citigroup lecturers are: Sir Tony Atkinson, Warden at Nuffield College at Oxford University; Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in Economics 2001; Dennis Archer, mayor of Detroit 1994-2001; Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations 1999-2001; Lawrence Summers, U.S. Secretary of Treasury 1999-2001; and Oscar Arias, president of Costa Rica 1986-1990 and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate in 1987.

PLACE: Pendleton Room, Michigan Union.

SPONSOR: Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the International Policy Center.

CONTACT: Sandra Ng, (734) 763-2599.

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