The EIB in Greece: by the numbers
Blog entry | 15 June, 2012As Europe’s financial establishment braces for the results of tomorrow’s Greek elections and Eurozone officials dangle the carrot of a new European Investment Bank programme in front of Athens, we’ve prepared a snapshot of previous EIB loans in the country. [1] [2] [3] [4] (NB: any tricolour similarities are entirely coincidental.)
Read moreA call for an open and transparent consultation process over the EIB’s energy policy
Publication | 13 June, 2012In this letter, five NGOs and NGO coalitions call on the EIB to undertake consultations according to the best standard as well as to identify and inform a wide range of stakeholders about the revision of the policy.
Read moreThe revolution should not be privatised
Blog entry | 12 June, 2012Pushing for public-private partnerships will not support democratisation in the Arab Spring countries but risks increasing their public debt. Our new website brings together the PPP lessons that Europe should have learned.
Read moreThe European Investment Bank is not ready for a capital increase, NGOs say
Press release | 15 May, 2012Brussels – As EU Ministers of Finance are currently gathering at the Annual General Meeting of the European Investment Bank (EIB) to discuss a possible capital increase, civil society organisations that monitor the EIB say the bank is not ready for such a move.
Read moreThe writings on the European Parliament’s wall: Make the EIB choose a brighter future
Blog entry | 15 May, 2012Ahead of the European Investment Bank’s annual meeting, Counter Balance and Bankwatch have chosen an unconventional way to remind the EIB shareholders of the bank’s chequered track record.
Read moreVideo projected on the European Parliament questions potential European Investment Bank’s capital increase
Press release | 14 May, 2012Brussels – On Monday night a video was projected on the building of the European Parliament which denounced the unsustainable energy portfolio of the European Investment Bank (EIB). The 1 minute video concluded with: “Make the EIB chose a brighter future before increasing its capital”, a message for EIB governors which gather Tuesday 15 May in Brussels during the bank’s Annual General Meeting. The main topic will be a possible capital increase of the EIB.
Read moreThe medium-sized EIB bazooka – Europe’s people and environment must benefit this time around
Publication | 14 May, 2012As it begins to dawn on Europe’s elite that fiscal austerity is not working after all, the European Investment Bank is once again the talk of the EU as decision-makers scramble to stimulate national economies that are hemhorraging jobs and living standards – and hope – across the continent.
Read moreVienna Initiative: regulatory capture and policy confusion continues
Publication | 14 May, 2012In February 2009 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, together with the European Investment Bank and the World Bank Group launched a series of meetings with commercial banks, coordinated with the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund, to shore up a weak link in the financial systems of the European Union. The weak link is in so-called ‘emerging Europe’, the countries of central and eastern Europe that are in the EU, but are outside the European Monetary Union, the Euro-zone. These are mostly ex-Communist countries whose financial systems had remained undeveloped under communism.
Read moreCorruption cases put EBRD due diligence in the spotlight
Publication | 14 May, 2012In recent months bribery and money laundering allegations levelled at a former EBRD banker, as well as revelations that an EBRD staffer, now suspended, is one of the founders of the far-right, racist organisation the English Defence League have not made for great PR for the EBRD.
Read moreEIB urged to dump coal in energy policy review
Publication | 14 May, 2012The European Investment Bank has announced that it will commence a review of its energy policy – “Clean energy for Europe: A reinforced EIB contribution” – in the second half of 2012. Bankwatch welcomed the announcement as the current policy, adopted in June 2007, needs to be brought up to speed and aligned with the latest developments in EU energy and climate policies.
Read more