The 50th anniversary of the EIB

When this issue of EIB-Information reaches you, it will be fifty years ago that the EIB took up its work. On 1 January 1958 the Treaties of Rome came into force, creating a Parliamentary Assembly, a Ministerial Council, a Commission, and also a European Investment Bank.

The then six Member States of the European Economic Community were the shareholders of the Bank: France, Germany, Italy and the Benelux countries, which together subscribed to a capital of 1 billion units of account, a unit of account being equivalent to 0.88867088 grams of fine gold (which was also the value of the US dollar). Acting for the first time as the Board of Governors of the EIB, the Finance Ministers of the Six started up the Bank on 25 January 1958 and the rest is history.