Requests: Enquiries regarding the EIB’s Public Disclosure Policy, and requests for access to project-related information, should be addressed to the Communication Department:
E-mail: infopol@eib.org
Phone: (+352) 43 79 – 62000
6 January 2012
International financial institutions (IFIs) have “overbroad regimes of exceptions” in their transparency policies, according to a report issued by the Centre for Law and Democracy.
Particularly troublesome are the exceptions relating to internal deliberations and third-party commercial information, according to…
21 January 2011
By Toby McIntosh
The European Investment Bank does receive reports from financial intermediaries about the loan they make, but that information is “not necessarily the subject of a specific report,” according to clarifications to Freedominfo.org provided by EIB officials.
The…
13 December 2010
A report showing that some European economic stimulus funds were slow reaching their intended recipients also exposes flaws in the disclosure policy of the European Investment Bank.
The report by the CEE BankWatch Network concerns “global loans” — which are…
16 March 2010
The European Investment Bank Feb. 3 announced a disclosure policy, making limited movement toward the release of more documents. The new policy was greeted with criticism by a leading group that follows the Bank closely and critically. CEEBankwatch Network stressed that the EIB is continuing to shield intermediary financial institutions from disclosing what loans they make with EIB [...]
4 November 2009
The European Investment Bank has announced a second round of consultations on its Complaints Mechanism, Transparency, and Public Disclosure policies.
The Bank is seeking comments by November 13 on new drafts and invited interested parties to discuss them at a…
19 June 2009
The European Investment Bank is proposing to disclose Framework Agreements only with the permission of the country partner, but the agreements appear to be largely technical and legal documents, judging from a very old one supplied by the Bank and…
12 June 2009
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is proposing to let countries decide whether to disclose the “Framework Agreement” documents that guide EIB lending to individual countries.
Tajikistan is one such country getting EIB help. On February 11, 2009, the EIB announced…
30 January 2008
The European Investment bank is now publishing the provisional summary of decisions of its Board of Directors.The first such entry, for a Dec. 11, 2007, meeting is viewable here.
The documents can be found under "Publications" in the section on…
9 May 2006
The European Investment bank has released its new disclosure policy, making a variety of improvements while sticking to secrecy in several areas.
The changes were “welcomed’ as “a step in the right direction” by the CEE Bankwatch Network, a nongovernmental…
22 March 2006
By Toby McIntosh
Riding a wave of transparency, the idea of encouraging Freedom of Information (FOI) laws as part of the development agenda is gaining currency, but slowly.
With research and case studies increasingly identifying transparency as a key tool…
30 November 2005
A committee of the European Union Parliament Nov. 22 rejected an effort by the European Investment Bank to be exempted from rules implementing the Aarhus Convention, the EU agreement that governs transparency policies for environmental-related activities.
Approval of an amendment…
9 August 2005
The European Investment Bank has declined to release the text of a framework agreement recently signed with Ukrainian leaders.
Although the EIB a year ago promised the release of framework agreements (with a few caveats), officials replying to a freedominfo.org…
21 July 2005
The European Investment Bank has committed to writing a second draft proposal on disclosure policy-expanding and extending its process for consultation and review after the first draft, and the process, came under criticism.
According to a July 21 announcement, "the…
21 December 2004
The European Investment Bank Dec. 14 announced plans to conduct a review of its Public Information Policy, and requested public comment on its existing policy.
The consultative process will be launched in the first quarter of 2005. The EIB did…
21 July 2004
The European Investment Bank Board of Directors has taken some steps toward disclosing some additional documents and more financial information about by key bank officials.
The 25 specific changes were announced by the board in mid-June in a nine-page document…
7 June 2004
European Investment Bank President, Philippe Maystadt, June 2 proposed to publish some additional information about EIB operations and the financial interests of key EIB officials.
The proposals made at the Bank’s annual meeting, include, according to Maystadt’s statement:
An annual…
7 June 2004
A coalition of nongovernmental organizations June 1 issued a broad critique of the European Investment Bank, including the criticism that the EIB is "the least transparent, least accountable and least democratically controlled institution in the family of agencies entrusted with…
13 April 2004
A committee of the European Parliament on April 6, 2004 rejected virtually all of the criticisms of the European Investment Bank by Spanish delegate Monica Ridruejo.
According to supporters of Ridreujo, the Economic and Monetary Committee (EMAC) "completely watered down"…
18 March 2004
A committee of the European Parliament, to the surprise of some observers, did not flatly reject Spanish parliamentarian Monica Ridruejo’s critical report about governance and transparency at the European Investment Bank.
Instead, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on…
15 March 2004
The European Investment Bank "fails to comply with good corporate governance" and does not disclose enough information to the public, according to controversial criticisms in a report prepared by a Spanish member of the European Parliament, Monica Ridruejo.
After months…
1 July 2003
Seeking to dramatize demands for more transparency at the European Investment Bank, three persons in monkey suits greeted EIB governors arriving for the EIB annual meting June 3 in Luxembourg.
“The Monkeys, covering respectively their ears, eyes and mouth were…
1 July 2003
A lack of transparency at the European Investment Bank was one of several reasons cited by the Dutch bank ASN July 17 when it announced its plan to stop investing in the EIB.
…
1 January 2003
CEE Bankwatch Network and Friends of the Earth International Dec. 4 charged that the European Investment Bank’s new information policy “fails to live up to expectations” and after two years in the making is “only a slight improvement over the…
1 January 2003
The European Investment Bank is "not comparable" to other international financial institutions, began Henry Marty-Guaquie, Director de la Communication for the EIB, in an interview about transparency with freedominfor.org Nov. 5.
By this he means that the EIB should be…
7 November 2002
The European Investment Bank has written a new transparency policy.
The new rule continues to emphasize the EIB’s willingness to honor requests for confidentiality by third parties. It indicates that the EIB will follow the disclosure practices of the banking…
1 September 2002
On June 28, 2002, at a EIB consultation with NGOs in Copenhagen, Martin Koehler, a staff member with the Campaign to Reform the World Bank, demanded "a formalization of the disclosure policy review process, with clear timelines regarding the publication…
1 June 2002
The European Investment Bank has been working on modifications to its information policy for about a year, with the EIB’s critics scratching their heads over when a revised policy will finally emerge.
More than 30 European NGOs have charged that…
In this column, Washington, D.C.-based journalist Toby J. McIntosh reports on the latest developments in information disclosure in International Financial and Trade Institutions (IFTI).
Contact: tmcintosh@bna.com or
1-(703) 341-5815
