..The EBRD President has asked me to respond on his behalf. First, I would like to reiterate the EBRD commitment to principles of democracy and pluralism, as set out in Article 1 of the Agreement Establishing the Bank. We are well aware of the challenges resulting from the COVID-19 crisis and are indeed concerned with some of the developments. We are thus continuing to regularly monitor the situation and updating our Board - most recently, in the context of our annual country strategy review process – and, if relevant, through the Project Complaint Mechanism’s quarterly reporting via the Audit Committee. We share our views when communicating to authorities in our countries, and coordinate our positions and actions with other international actors. In our Solidarity Package aimed at helping the countries we work in address the crisis and its consequences, we have also noted worrying recent trends in the area of rule of law and human rights compliance and re-affirmed that the transition process could be undermined without functioning democracy and limits to state power. In January 2019, we released a communication, where we publically re-affirmed the Bank’s zero-tolerance policy towards retaliation against civil society and project stakeholders. As stated in that note, any such retaliation could constitute a “Coercive Practice” under the EBRD’s Enforcement Policy and Procedures and result in sanctions, including debarment...