In Whose Interest?

08.02.2006: The European Investment Bank (EIB) in the South

In recent decades, the European Investment Bank (EIB) has become an important player among international financial institutions’ (IFIs) lending to countries in the global south. The EIB is increasingly involved in lending operations outside the European Union, in particular to the private sector. Of all IFI lending in Latin America from 1997 to 2002, the EIB’s private sector support ranked third after the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. It was ranked the fifth largest IFI private sector lender in Asia.

This report analyses the real poverty alleviation impact of EIB lending operations in African, Caribbean, Pacific, Asian and Latin American countries. It illustrates how European companies are the main beneficiaries of EIB loans, exposes the significant social and environmental problems surrounding EIB’s projects, details various instances of fundamental policy incoherence and highlights the serious non-transparency and the systematic lack of development impact assessments of the EIB’s lending in the global south.

This report provides an overview of eight projects funded by the EIB in Zambia, Chad, Cameroon, the Philippines, Indonesia, Laos, Mexico and Brazil. The projects cover a variety of sectors, including oil, gas, mining, water, the car industry, and pulp and paper. In most of these cases, requests by local and/or international civil society for pre- and postappraisal studies, monitoring reports and project evaluations were rejected by the EIB on the grounds of confidentiality requirements.

As the EIB is setting out to revise its mandates outside the European Union (its present mandates expire in 2007), this report highlights critical mistakes to avoid in the future, and steps the EIB could take to do things better.

Content:

• THE EIB OUTSIDE EUROPE: LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORKS
• AFRICA: PRIORITY SUPPORT FOR OIL, MINING AND GAS
• LATIN AMERICA: PUTTING INDUSTRY AND ENERGY IN THE HANDS OF EUROPEAN COMPANIES
• ASIA: PROMOTING WATER PRIVATISATION AND LARGE DAMS

The report is published by Friends of the Earth International, Campagna per la riforma della Banca Mondiale, CEE Bankwatch Network and WEED.

Author: Jaroslava Colajacomo

Schutzgebühr (inkl. Versandkosten): EUR 2,00 (Mitglieder EUR 1,50), January 2006, 52 pages.
The report can be ordered online.