Briefing for the EIB Board on the Budapest Airport expansion project

Briefing    |    2 May 2023

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In December 2018, the European Investment Bank (EIB) granted a EUR 200 million loan for the expansion of Budapest’s Liszt Ferenc International Airport, a project that aims to increase passenger traffic by 50 per cent over the next eight years. In October 2021, the EIB Group Complaints Mechanism (EIB-CM) concluded that the Budapest Airport project fails to comply with the EU’s environmental legislation and the EIB’s environmental and social standards. However, to date, the recommendations of the EIB-CM have not been implemented and none of the breaches identified have been corrected or remedied. The project severely impacts people living around the airport who have long suffered from the air pollution and unbearable noise. 

This briefing shows how this EIB-financed project continues to violate the fundamental rights of residents, which are enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. It urges the EIB’s Board to review the Bank’s actions to bring this project into full compliance with EU environmental law and EIB standards, particularly to mandate meaningful public consultation and implementation of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) as part of the process.

This publication is also available in Hungarian.