Eight things to give the EIB’s forthcoming climate policy meaning, purpose and ambition
Publication | 10 December, 2014With climate protection set to be a high priority for the EU in the next five years and beyond, the EIB needs to streamline climate considerations across its lending to different sectors and in different regions as quickly as possible. Such a policy needs to deliver on multiple objectives, with the combating of climate change and the promotion of sustainability absolutely central to these.
Read moreJuncker’s investment package to be hijacked by countries’ destructive plans
Press release | 8 December, 2014Brussels – A list of projects member states want to see financed from the Juncker investment package has been made public in expectation of tomorrow’s summit where finance ministers will discuss the package. Coal, nuclear and incinerators are among the various countries’ priorities, which fail to add up to the long-term strategic plan to stimulate growth and sustainability in Europe that Juncker promised.
Read more
EU Project Bonds are a worrying indication for the future EU long term investment plans
Blog entry | 4 December, 2014As the pilot phase of the EU Project Bonds Initiative is coming to an end, a roundtable discussion in the European Parliament takes stock of the initiative.
Read moreBankwatch Mail 61
Publication | 2 December, 2014Европейский инвестиционный банк как основа Инициативы проектных облигаций ЕС – ее начальной и, как показывает опыт, проблематичной пилотной фазы. В Bankwatch Mail 61 рассматриваются инфраструктурные проблемы, которые сегодня стоят перед Европой, вопрос приемлемости использования таких механизмов, как европейские проектные облигации, для выхода на финансовые рынки, а также обзор недавно представленного пакета инвестиционных мер Юнкера, в котором в очередной раз ведущая роль в области реанимации европейской экономики отводится ЕИБ.
Read more
Sostanj lignite plant: A mistake not to be repeated
Press release | 2 December, 2014Ljubljana — A new briefing by Slovenian NGO Focus shows how misguided assessments of future viability and corruption led to TES6 lignite unit costing more than double the estimated amount, bringing annual losses of tens of millions of euros, and creating only a fraction of the number of jobs promised.
Read moreBankwatch Mail 61
Publication | 2 December, 2014The European Investment Bank has been at the heart of the EU’s Project Bonds Initiative – its inception and its so far troubled pilot phase. Bankwatch Mail 61 examines the infrastructure challenges facing us in Europe and beyond, questions whether mechanisms such as the European project bonds are an appropriate way to tap into money in financial markets, and provides an overview of the newly launched Juncker investment package, featuring another pivotal role for the EIB in the latest high-level effort to kick-start the European economy.
Read more
Mind the infrastructure gap
Publication | 2 December, 2014A case of outrageous bad fortune, or a portent of things to come? The one thing that can be stated with any certainty about the collapsed Castor project, the underground gas storage plant in Vinaròs, Spain that was selected in 2013 as the lead-out project for the EU’s Project Bond Initiative (PBI), is that the Spanish government has put its citizens on the hook to cover a compensation package of EUR 1.35 billion to ESCAL UGS, the project promoter.
Read more
EIB role in Juncker investment package draws more questions than answers for now
Publication | 2 December, 2014Here we go again. Having been called upon to ramp up its investments in 2009 and 2010 as part of Europe’s initial financial crisis fire-fighting, and then in 2012 been a central cog in the EU’s ambitious but ultimately lacklustre ‘Growth Compact’, the European Investment Bank now finds itself at the heart of new European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker’s three-year drive to boost investment in Europe, as unveiled on November 26.
Read more
Castor project sends Project Bonds Initiative shockwaves, taxpayers hit worst
Publication | 2 December, 2014In July 2013, the much-hyped joint European commission/EIB ‘Project Bond Initiative’ (PBI) had scarcely got off the ground – in its pilot phase at least – when unusual natural events took over. Work at the EUR 1.7 billion Castor underground gas storage plant off the coast of Valencia commenced in summer 2013. But by mid-September the Spanish government was forced to halt work at the plant after 220 mini earthquakes in the area were detected in less than a month. Local residents reported the tremors following injections of natural gas to prepare Castor for operations. Subsequent research has found that the gas injection provoked 1,000 earthquakes in the region.
Read more
European Ombudsman hammers EIB over Bosnian bridge maladministration
Publication | 2 December, 2014An unprecedented ruling and serious tough talking emanated from the European Ombudsman at the end of October following an investigation into the EIB’s involvement with a bridge construction project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Describing the approach taken by the EIB in the case as “wholly unacceptable”, the Ombudsman’s conclusion pulled no punches in asserting that the bank’s “maladministration risks putting into question the European Union’s commitment to strengthening the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Read more
