EIB chief goes for green as activists call for transparency

Date: 05/06/03

By Karen Carstens

EUROPEAN Investment Bank President Philippe Maystadt has one thing to say to activists who accuse the Luxembourg-based EU financing body of shrouding itself in secrecy - check out our recent track record.

True, the EIB may not always have been the most transparent of institutions since it was created by the Treaty of Rome in 1957, partly because of its somewhat nebulous dual status as an independent bank and an EU body.

But Maystadt is quick to point out that efforts to foster dialogue with NGOs, and anyone else interested in the bank's nearly l40 billion annual long-term lending operations, are certainly being made.

"I'm very much in favour of discussions with NGOs," he said, adding that the bank hosts annual NGO workshops in different locales - this year's was held in March in Thessaloniki.

Moreover, three years ago the EIB started posting details of projects it was considering on its website for interested parties to comment on before the application for financing was forwarded to the bank's board of governors.

In 2002, 68 of the bank's 300-400 projects (this depends on how they are counted, as some are interlinked) were listed on the website, up from 50 in 2001.

"And I am confident that this figure will rise to more than 70 this year," Maystadt said. Part of the reason for not divulging details of every project, he added, is that the bank is often dealing with promoters who would rather keep things under wraps.

Maystadt, who yesterday (4 June), in Brussels, co-chaired a debate on how to best finance joint renewable energy goals - as part of the Commission's annual Green Week - also said the EIB is stepping up its funding of environment-related projects. The bank aims to increase this area from a current one-quarter to one-third of its total lending.

"It's an evolution for the EIB," he said, adding that, after regional development focusing on economic and social cohesion, as well as "our contribution to the Lisbon strategy" - the EU's goal of becoming the most competitive knowledge-based economy by 2010 - the environment is one of three major priorities for the EIB.

Last year, the bank also created a new environment unit, "to ensure that environmental aspects are fully considered" in all its operations, Maystadt explained.

But CEE Bankwatch Network, an NGO which monitors the activities of international financial institutions, and the EIB's most vocal critic, claims that the environment overhaul was purely cosmetic and that the bank remains as secretive as ever. CEE activists showed up at the EIB's doorstep in Luxembourg on Tuesday (3 June) as Maystadt presided over an annual general meeting of the bank's governors.

The protestors called for "immediate steps to ensure greater transparency" on behalf of more than 100 NGOs and paraded around in costumes portraying the fabled 'hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil' three 'monkeys of truth'.

They claim that the bank's new information policy is "filled with non-committal phrases" and does not provide for the release of documents it promises.

"Our experience is that thorough project-related information is virtually impossible to obtain," CEE Bankwatch insisted in a statement.

"These limitations are left to the complete discretion of the EIB."

Magda Stoczkiewicz, EIB campaign coordinator for both Friends of the Earth International and CEE Bankwatch, cited a bank-funded motorway project in the Czech Republic (see Page 23) and a court case brought against the EIB by railway workers in Slovakia as two of the latest examples of the bank's blunders.

"It doesn't happen in other banks like the World Bank or the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, that they don't announce a decision they are considering," she said, adding that the EIB's annual budget is bigger than that of the World Bank.

She also said the World Bank, for example, "takes much more responsibility for the projects it funds".

Stoczkiewicz admitted that Maystadt, who took on the post of president in 1999, "is much better than his predecessor" when it comes to transparency.

"But he has inherited this really rigid institution with some staff members who have been around for 20 years or more, so of course it's hard to change things overnight."