December 5, 2002

The European Investment Bank, the development funding arm of the EU, is likely to find its new transparency rules do
not satisfy social and environmental campaigners.

The banks says, however, it will only conform to the principles of the
regulation “to the extent that this shall not undermine the full
performance of its task as a financial institution”.

Legitimate reasons for it to depart from the regulation, the bank says,
include commercial confidentiality; the financial interests of the
European Community, its institutions or members states; individual
privacy; the protection of court action; legal advice; obligation of
professional secrecy and the management interests of the bank.

According to Magda Stoczkiewicz of environmental pressure group Friends
of the Earth a lack of transparency is a particular problem in Central
and Eastern Europe, countries which are recipients of over 15 per cent
of the EIB’s annual 30 billion euro loans. In these countries, she
said, the EIB’s weak policy of transparency is compounding the ongoing
problems of government secrecy.

Also potentially off-putting to those seeking information about EIB
loans is that the bank reserves the right to charge the cost of
collecting the data.

The rules, published late last month, were designed to allow the bank
to fall into line with regulations governing access to European
Parliament, Council and Commission documents adopted in May last year
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/eib).