EU bank’s new environmental and social policy not fit for lofty development ambitions
February 2, 2022
The European Investment Bank (EIB) – the financial arm of the EU – has approved a set of new environmental and social standards that, despite some last-minute changes, leave the door open to human rights abuses and biodiversity destruction, warn civil society groups.
The EIB’s safeguard rules must match its global ambitions
February 1, 2022
The EU’s house bank has great development aspirations, but its draft environmental and social policy has dangerous gaps that will come back to haunt it.
EU bank freezes funding for major Budapest Airport expansion over sweeping violations of environmental norms
January 10, 2022
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has suspended the disbursement of a EUR 200 million loan intended to facilitate a dramatic increase in passenger turnover at Hungary’s main international airport following an investigation by the Bank’s Complaints Mechanism that found that no analysis had been done to assess the air pollution, noise pollution and greenhouse gas emissions that the development would generate, in breach of the Bank’s own policy as well as EU environmental law.
EIB misinterprets EU’s development finance needs
October 12, 2021
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has long been seeking to take a more significant role in the EU’s overseas development effort. But it has also been resisting calls to upgrade its policy on the environmental, social and human rights ramifications of the projects it supports.
Budapest airport torments neighbours as expansion project evades environmental checks
October 11, 2021
The expansion of Budapest’s Ferenc Liszt International Airport, financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB), illustrates how big infrastructure projects are promoted at the expense of people and the environment, ignoring EU environmental requirements and the EIB’s own environmental and social standards. However, what is most striking about this case is the fact that a project with EU financial support, has ended up trapping citizens in miserable lives only few are able to flee.
Trouble in the air: EIB ignores environmental and social burdens caused by Budapest Airport expansion
October 11, 2021
The Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport is located 16 kilometres from the centre of Budapest. With a licence for a capacity of 6 million passengers per year and 15 million in the peak year of 2019, new plans to develop the airport aim to increa
Joint civil society letter to EIB’s President Werner Hoyer on Bank’s Environmental and Social Sustainability Framework (ESSF)
September 14, 2021
Bankwatch, together with civil society organisations worldwide, is closely following the ongoing review of the EIB’s Environmental and Social Sustainability Framework (ESSF). In this context, we sent several joint CSO submissions highlighting concrete
