The veil of secrecy shrouding export credit agencies in central and eastern Europe shows that the EU law on export credits must be strengthened

Briefing    |    9 June 2022

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This briefing highlights the lack of public scrutiny over export credit agencies (ECAs) in central and eastern Europe. The need for transparency has long been the basis for civil society requests to revise EU Regulation 1233/2011, which have been communicated to the European Commission and the European Parliament. In order to monitor the performance of European ECAs and ensure that they adhere to the EU’s external action objectives and policies, effective tools need to be deployed. ECAs in Poland, Croatia, Hungary and the Czech Republic have been relentless in resisting civil society efforts to shine a light on how they use public money. Gaining access to information about ECAs’ portfolios seems to be impossible in practice; lengthy and costly legal processes are the only way for civil society organisations to obtain elementary information about ECA projects. In such circumstances, there is no guarantee that ECAs will be held accountable for their responsibilities towards EU citizens.