This paper, prepared by French politician Jacques Roger-Machart, proposes two new institutions for channeling capital to the Arab world (primarily the countries of the Maghreb):

1. A Euro-Arab Investment Company (EAIC), which would take catalytic equity stakes in Arab enterprises and which would provide on-going advisory services to those firms; and
2. A parallel Guarantee Fund, that would provide private investors in the EAIC (and in projects funded by the EAIC) with partial insurance should their investment fail.

While there may be criticism of another multilateral development institution that criticism may be shortsighted for two reasons:

1. There is a pressing political need for a positive European response to the very serious problems that North African governments find themselves facing; and
2. The EAIC and Guarantee Fund differ markedly in their structure from existing multilateral banks.

This idea is a parsimonious project based on an approach that has already been tested in France.