...[W]e alleged the lack of transparency of more than a third of the European Investment Bank (EIB)’s EU lending which is carried out via intermediaries as well as the lack of checks by the EIB about their environmental and social impacts. These allegations are based on research conducted by us on small hydropower plants financed by International Financial Institutions, including the EIB, across southeast Europe.

We regret that while the bank has strongly denied these allegations, it did not provide any evidence to substantiate its statements, such as providing examples of how it conducted environmental checks of final beneficiaries or how it disclosed information on projects financed though the EIB’s intermediaries.

The EIB claims that projects with negative environmental or social impacts cannot be financed through financial intermediaries. The opposite is true. Our research revealed that the EIB, using financial intermediaries, has provided at least 27 loans for hydropower plants through financial intermediaries since 2010, though the exact number and many of the names of the plants financed remain unknown. Of those identified, several have caused immense environmental damage...

The European Ombudsman is currently examining deficiencies in the EIB’s disclosure of information. In the course of her investigation, the European Ombudsman has made several suggestions on how the EIB could improve its practices. She suggested that the EIB could contractually oblige its intermediaries to publish ‘environmental information’ whenever they use EIB funds to finance projects that have a significant impact on the environment and that the EIB could contractually oblige its intermediaries to provide the EIB with the name, place and nature of any project that has a significant impact on the environment as soon as the financing decision has been taken. The EIB could then immediately publish this information on its existing online project page.

These suggestions have unfortunately been rejected by the EIB, which did not amend its new Transparency Policy in a way that would address the Ombudsman’s suggestions.