Building on previous research on the relations between the European Union (EU) and the World Bank, this paper contributes to the debate on the World Bank focality in the regime complex for multilateral development finance. Adopting a historical-institutionalist perspective, the analysis focuses on the determinants and mechanisms of micro-institutional changes that have occurred in the context of EU-World Bank's interaction in non-core lending, particularly in World Bank trust funds and EU blending facilities. Most of the existing literature has focused on the ascendancy of new regional development banks outside the Bretton Woods camp, qualifying it as mostly conflicting or mostly cooperative. In contrast, this paper contends that a challenge has arisen also from within the group of core Bretton Woods-inspired institutions. In addition, it shows how the EU has both competed and cooperated with the World Bank in the area of fiduciary funding, across three broad phases, and in response to specific critical junctures and tipping points. The EU’s innovation and quest for leadership in blended finance has replicated the World Bank’s good practices on some counts, yet it has also challenged its focality in non-core lending.

中文翻译：

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通过竞争合作：欧盟挑战和支持世界银行在多边开发融资方面的重点

在先前对欧盟（EU）与世界银行之间关系的研究的基础上，本文有助于关于世界银行在多边发展融资体制复合体中的焦点的辩论。该分析采用历史制度主义的视角，重点关注在欧盟-世界银行在非核心贷款方面的互动背景下发生的微观制度变化的决定因素和机制，特别是在世界银行信托基金和欧盟混合贷款机构中。大多数现有文献都集中在布雷顿森林阵营之外的新区域开发银行的优势上，将其定性为主要是相互冲突或主要是合作。相比之下，本文认为，受布雷顿森林体系启发的核心机构群体内部也出现了挑战。此外，它展示了欧盟如何在信托资金领域与世界银行展开竞争和合作，跨越三个主要阶段，并应对特定的关键节点和临界点。欧盟的创新和对混合金融领导地位的追求在某些方面复制了世界银行的良好做法，但它也挑战了其在非核心贷款方面的重点。