EIB to weaken accountability mechanism, despite civil society criticism
November 13, 2018
Brussels – In a step backwards for the EU bank’s transparency and accountability, the Board of Directors of the European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved a controversial new policy [1] of its Complaints Mechanism, a move that will take the bank further away from the communities affected by its operations – say NGOs.
The complaints mechanism at the EIB – usable but useless?
October 8, 2018
Nearly three years after first announcing it, the European Investment Bank (EIB) has finally presented a new vision for the bank’s complaints mechanism, the body responsible for grievances related to EIB projects and policies.
How compliant is ADB to its own safeguards policies?
May 18, 2018
A Georgia hydropower project has locals and civil society concerned. One of the banks considering funding the project is ADB, yet a complaint filed with its compliance review panel shows the limitations of its safeguards. The panel recommends a full in
EPS restructuring loan
May 10, 2018
Despite its commitments to increase the share of renewables under the Energy Community and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the process of EU accession, the Serbian government seems determined to remain locked-in to a carbon intensive energy syst
Concerns regarding the EBRD’s Project Complaint Mechanism and recommendations for improvements – letter to EBRD directors
January 23, 2017
This letter to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s Board of Directors summarises civil society organisations’ concerns regarding bank’s Project Complaints Mechanism, specifically the handling of several complaints, and makes specific recommendations for improvements, based on experience with these cases and with the accountability mechanisms of other institutions.
Glass Half Full? The state of accountability in development finance
January 27, 2016
Real development respects human rights and is shaped by the people it is designed to benefit. However, development projects financed by development finance institutions in many cases has been associated with the dispossession of land, loss of resources, diminished livelihoods and environmental degradation. Accountability mechanisms in theory aim to ensure that people who have been harmed by these projects receive adequate remedy. As this report shows, however, these accountability mechanisms to a large extent fail to fulfil this function, not least because they operate in a constrained environment constructed by the institutions that administer them.
European Ombudsman: EIB weakens EU efforts to strengthen rule of law
October 30, 2014
Brussels – In an unprecedented ruling this week, the European Ombudsman concluded at the end of an investigation into the EIB’s involvement with a road construction project in Bosnia and Herzegovina that the institution’s behaviour was “totally unacceptable” and it “risked putting into question the EU’s commitment for strengthening the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
EIB commits to review tax haven policy
February 14, 2014
During the annual meeting between civil society and the EIB’s Board of Directors, the European Investment Bank committed to review its outdated tax haven policy this year. The commitment which followed a letter from several NGOs expressing such demand, is the most concrete outcome of the meeting which took place on 3rd February in the bank’s headquarters in Luxemburg.
