Dr. Werner Hoyer President European Investment Bank

 

Strasbourg, 29/01/2021

Strategic Initiative SI/3/2020/SF

Subject: Transparency of the EIB’s COVID-19 crisis response

Dear President,

I would like to thank you for your answer of 30 September 2020 to my strategic initiative ‘SI/3/2020/SF - Transparency of the EIB’s COVID-19 crisis response’.

I appreciate that the EIB is committed to ensuring an effective response to the COVID-19 crisis without jeopardising its high standards of good administration and transparency. The EIB has created a dedicated webpage to enhance the transparency of its COVID-19 response and has published, in line with the EIB Group’s transparency policy, project summaries of the majority of fast-tracked operations at least three weeks before approval by the Board of Directors.

I note that the EIB is in the process of revising its transparency policy and has launched a public consultation, in the course of which it will also host an online consultation event to exchange directly with participants on the key issues covered by the review. I have asked members of my staff to follow the discussions given our obvious interest in developments on this important policy.

Part of my strategic initiative focused on how the EIB ensured that the eligibility criteria for COVID-19 support measures were applied coherently to all final beneficiaries, where lending would happen through financial intermediaries. The EIB communicates the eligibility criteria as well as reporting requirements to the financial intermediaries through side letters, which form part of the contractual documentation under each loan.

As you know, my office is currently examining three cases^[1] in which civil society organisations are suggesting changes to the EIB’s transparency practices in relation to direct and indirect financing^[2]. These issues will be examined in greater detail in that context.

I therefore close this strategic initiative and thank you for having given this matter such attention and for your ongoing commitment to good administration.

Yours sincerely,

 

Emily O'Reilly
European Ombudsman

 

[1] 1065/2020/PB - How the European Investment Bank discloses environmental information in relation to projects it finances directly; 1251/2020/PB - How the European Investment Bank discloses environmental information in relation to projects it finances that are carried out by intermediaries; 1252/2020/PB - Refusal of the European Investment Bank to grant public access to the minutes of meetings of its management committee.

[2] 1065/2020 and 1251/2020. Meetings with the EIB were held in October 2020. The civil society organisations submitted comments on the meeting reports on 13 January 2021, and both cases are now being assessed for the next step.