Updates on the European Investment Bank

European Parliament passes resolution to end taxpayer support for fossil fuels projects

With a resounding majority (540 MEPs in favour), the European Parliament today passed a resolution on trade and climate change which calls for “the discontinuation of public support, via export credit agencies and public investment banks, for fossil fuel projects”. The step was widely welcomed by environmental and development NGOs campaigning on export credit agencies (ECAs) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

NGO letter to the EIB regarding possible financing for the Belene NPP

Raising the bar on big dams: making the case for dam policy reform at the European Investment Bank

The European Investment Bank has been involved in a number of large dam projects in recent years, many of them in Africa. All could have been improved sometimes significantly so by more careful planning and better implementation standards. Despite making vague references to the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams, the EIB currently has no sector policy for dams.

European Investment Bank: Promoting sustainable development, “where appropriate”

This report aims to inform the ongoing review of environmental and social practices within the EIB by examining the standards endorsed by the EIB in a variety of social policy areas, and identifying international best practices against which the EIBs new framework will invariably be judged. Specifically, it will focus on five different social policy areas in which EIB policy remains unclarified and underdeveloped; social assessment, human rights, communities participation and consent, labour rights, and gender equality.

Summary of Public Environmental Impact Assessment of Western High-Speed Diameter project

Albanian referendum aims to put a break on Italian oil and gas plans for renowned Vlora Bay

Vlora, Albania – The city council of Vlora in Albania this week approved a citizens’ initiative to hold a public referendum on the development in the picturesque Bay of Vlora of a 200,000 ton oil and gas terminal that is being promoted by the Italian La Petrolífera Italo Rumena company. If constructed, the terminal would become another component of a controversial industrial and energy park located less than six kilometres north of Vlora, a city of more than 150,000 inhabitants.

NGO letter to the Austrian Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology regarding the A5 motorway between Vienna and Brno

Resistance to the Balkan pipeline carve up is growing

Bankwatch staff members have just returned from an invigorating and productive meeting with environmental and human rights groups from 14 countries aimed at developing responses to the rash of oil pipeline projects being proposed in South East Europe to bring Russian and Caspian oil to Europe and the US.

Table of European Investment Bank energy investments 2002-2006

European Investment Bank energy investments 2002-2006

A database of the EIB’s investments in the energy sector from 2002-2006, compiled from the EIB’s annual reports, shows that most of its investments in this sector went to gas as well as electricity distribution. (For an analysis covering the years until 2008, please see our study Change the lending, not the climate.)