Updates on the European Investment Bank

NGO submission to the EIB public consultation on its anti-corruption policy

The bulk of NGO recommendations on the EIBs Anti-Corruption Policy are contained in the notes below, but it is also possible to make a few general points. We welcome EIBs commitment in the preamble of the policy to the principle of not tolerating corruption, fraud or other illegal acts in any of its activities or operations. However, we believe that the Banks policy as it stands does not go anything like far enough. The Bank must be much more proactive in combating corruption, acting earlier to pre-empt illegal acts and more aggressively to root them out after they occur.

Lost in Transportation: The European Investment Banks bias towards road and air transport

This report finds that the multi-million euro loans of the European Investment Bank (EIB) in the transport sector are helping to fuel climate change and have made little or no contribution to the more progressive goals of the EU White Paper on transport, especially those on modal shift and decoupling transport from economic growth. The report analyses the EUR 112 billion that the EIB provided to transport projects in the period 1996-2005.

Bankwatch Mail 31

In this issue: Planes, loans and automobiles * Kyrgyzstan’s government rejected HIPC shackles thanks to public pressure * Editorial: Double standards for how much longer? * The nuclear white elephant in Bulgaria’s room * Rospuda interview – EU law in the driving seat * First PPP motorway in Russia to cause problems for thousands of people * Your voice in Europe: support the Green paper on urban transport

Complaint to the EBRD Independent Recourse Mechanism regarding the Vlora Thermal Power project

Joint letter to the EBRD Environmental department from Ukrainian NGOs regarding flawed public hearings on a transmission line project

Letter to EC representatives on breaches of law in Zagreb incinerator EIA approval

On November 24, 2006 Francois Delcuellerie, EC Desk Officer for Croatia answered to this letter. Download the response as pdf here. On September 3, 2007 Marijan Galovic of Green Action sent update to the originall letter. Download it as pdf here. On January 28, 2008 Croatian Ministry of Environment responded to the above. Download the letter as pdf here.

Bankwatch Mail 30

In this issue: Race against time to salvage EU funding for sustainable energy in the new member states * Bulgaria’s nuclear dowry * Customer complaints hit EIB shopping centre loan in Hungary * Hot air could become hotter in Ukraine * EBRD Environmental Policy Review is rolling * Short cuts over houses required for more growth in Slovakia * Toxic dump in a marine reserve? * World Bank Group’s renewable energy numbers exposed * NGO energy report * EBRD pigs to fly again?

Bankwatch Mail 29

In this issue: Cohesion or Collision? EU funding and biodiversity * Shell’s Sakhalin project no friend of people or nature * People’s right to know not fully reflected in EIB’s new plans to show * Will the neighbouring countries’ biodiversity be bulldozed by TEN-T extension? * EIB 1996-2006; Evolution of an invisible giant * New Citizen’s Guide for better use of internationally recognised complaint mechanisms * Saaremaa bridge- a crazy Estonian dream * EU waste strategy and public funds must not go up in smoke

Bankwatch Mail 28

In this issue: Forging the future, without faking it * Prostitution, trafficking, and STDs on the rise in EBRD oil projects * The EBRD’s PIP show * Azerbaijan’s oil boom showing troubling signs * Georgia’s economic situation less than rosy * New energy targets don’t tell the whole story * EBRD’s kiss and tell reinvents transition * The memory hole * New Zagreb waste strategy fails to justify incineration

Bankwatch Mail 27

In this issue: Sakhalin fishermen’s struggle for justice * Can the EIB deliver on development? * The memory hole * Scraping the bottom of the end-of-pipe barrel * Social issues SOS from EBRD Environmental Department * Time to wake up from South-East Europe’s pipeline dreams * Nukes and cronies in the Balkans * Two or three Americans: Wolfowitz and his Republican appointees * World Bank helping to tarnish jewels of Polish nature * EIB in the South. In whose interest? * We will not be moved * EU funds in central and eastern Europe: cohesion or collision?