The day before a European Parliament committee vote on extending the mandate of the European Investment Bank (EIB) to permit it to engage in lending activities in Central Asia, the campaign coalition Counter Balance: Challenging the European Investment Bank has pointed out the human rights, environmental and social risks attached to tasking the …bank with such a new role. Desislava Stoyanova, Coordinator of Counter Balance, said: “… the EIB…lacks clearly elaborated environmental and social standards and adequate safeguard policies for its lending operations outside the EU. When you consider the harsh human rights situation in much of Central Asia, coupled with the predominance of untapped extractive industry projects in the region, an unconditional Community guarantee for the EIB in this context as is being proposed is utterly reckless...The bank’s contribution to democratisation and the improvement of human rights needs to be assessed.”…