Greens demand tougher controls on ‘secretive’ EIB

Date: 07/02/02

By David Cronin and Peter Chapman

GREEN activists are urging EU governments not to approve a planned increase in funds available to the European Investment Bank (EIB) unless it undergoes major reforms.

In a campaign launched today (7 February), a coalition of environment groups contends that the EIB - which is the EU's main lending institution - has a poor track record in ensuring the projects it aids do not cause social or ecological damage.

The campaigners are lobbying member states to make an EIB request to raise its capital from €100 billion to €150 billion conditional on acceptance of new rules on openness and environmental assessment.

A decision on that request is due to be taken at the bank's annual meeting in June.

The groups state that the EIB's rules on public access to its documents are extremely restrictive.

They also rebuke the bank for having just one full-time employee to review whether its projects comply with environmental standards.

By comparison, the World Bank, which issues a similar amount of loans as the EIB, has 300 environmental experts.

'The EIB is handling a growing amount of money, so there has to be a greater way of assessing how it is spent,' said Magda Stoczkiewicz from Friends of the Earth.

But EIB President Philippe Maystadt rejects the criticisms, claiming the bank makes a great deal of information available on its website.

In an interview with European Voice, he said it is secretive only about deals with commercial sensitivity for particular companies.

'The public is informed [about our activities] at the same time as the Commission or the government of the country concerned,' he added.

'We are open to comments from interested members of the public.'

Complaints about EIB-funded projects include:

• That it allocated €45 million for a road bridge in Bratislava before a study on the impact its construction would have on the Slovak capital had been completed;
• That it allocated €144 million for developing an oil pipeline between Chad and Cameroon, without properly assessing how the project would affect forests and indigenous people;
• That it allocated €69 million to build a gas pipeline between Brazil and Bolivia that would cut through the Pantanal wetlands, an internationally renowned wildlife reserve.

Despite these complaints, Maystadt said the bank is 'more attentive' to environmental concerns than it has been in the past.

He also said that many of its projects are designed to protect the environment by treating water, improving air quality or combating urban decay.

Established in 1958, the EIB has lent money to some 150 countries in the past few years.

The bank has an annual lending portfolio of €33 billion.

Green activists are urging EU governments not to approve a planned increase in funds available to the European Investment Bank unless it undergoes major reforms.

http://www.eib.org/ http://www.eib.org/

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