KIEV, Feb. 16 – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is ready to invest around EUR1 billion in Ukraine in 2009, and hopes that systematic steps will be taken to bring the country out of economic crisis, EBRD President Thomas Mirow said at a meeting with Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn in Kiev on Monday.

He said the bank had invested EU 900 million in Ukraine last year and added that "long-lasting relations between Ukraine and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development show that Ukraine can count on the EBRD's support."