President European Investment Bank

 

Dear President,

I have received a complaint against the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The complaint concerns the EIB’s co-financing of the Poklečani Wind Farm in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The complainant claims that the project is not compliant with EU environmental law, the Aarhus Convention[1] and the EIB’s Environmental and Social Standards.

She also considers that the Conclusions Report, issued by the EIB Complaints Mechanism (EIB-CM) in response to her complaints, fails to meet the standard of an objective, thorough, and transparent investigation.

The present complaint overlaps to some extent with the substantive environmental claims raised in case 3556/2025/KW, for which I have already sent you a request for reply and an inspection request on 5 May 2026. Thus, whilst the two complaints are distinct, the EIB’s replies, where they overlap, will be taken into account for both cases (2920/2025/KW and 3556/2025/KW), for reasons of procedural economy.

As a first step in this inquiry, I have concluded that it would be useful to receive a written reply from the EIB on the matter, which should also address the questions annexed to this letter.

I would be grateful to receive the EIB's reply by 2 October 2026.

Please note that I am likely to send your reply and related enclosures to the complainant for comments. I would therefore be grateful if the EIB could submit a translation of the reply itself in German, which is the language of the complaint. I may also decide to publish your reply. If you wish to submit documents or information that you consider to be confidential, and which should not be disclosed to the complainant, please mark them ‘Confidential’[2].

Furthermore, I consider it necessary for my inquiry team to inspect the relevant documents and correspondence concerning the EIB’s approval of the Project. This should include:

1. The financing decision of 6 February 2024;

2. EIB internal documentation, such as exchanges, notes and reports concerning the monitoring of compliance with all environmental and social conditions imposed by the funding decision in this project;

3. Documents, including any assessments, briefings, notes, demonstrating how the EIB followed up with the promoter as regards the EIB-CM’s suggestion regarding the obligation to publish the screen-out decision;

4. All relevant EIB environmental and social policies and standards, including Environmental and Social Handbook, applicable before and up to the date of the financing decision on 6 February 2024;

5. All assessments by the EIB of the impact of judgments of competent national courts concerning the urban permit for the project - Sarajevo Cantonal Court Decision No. 09 0 U 046147 24 U, dated 2 October 2024 and Ruling of the FBiH Supreme Court, No. 09 0 U 046147 24 Uvp;

6. All assessments by the EIB of the impact of judgments of competent national courts concerning the screen-out decision.

I would be grateful to receive the above documents, together with a list clearly identifying the shared documents, preferably in electronic format through encrypted e-mail,[3] by 24 July 2026.

Once my inquiry team has assessed the documents and the EIB’s written reply, I will decide if it is necessary to arrange a meeting with relevant representatives of the EIB to discuss this case.

The inquiries officer responsible for the case is Ms Kristina Wittkopp.

If, in the course of this inquiry, the EIB becomes involved in court proceedings concerning the same subject matter as this complaint, I would ask you to let us know.

Please note that I considered some aspects[4] of the complaint to be inadmissible, as these were not raised in the complaints to the EIB and therefore do not fall within the scope of this inquiry. Moreover, I did not find grounds to open an inquiry into the claims regarding the impact on cultural heritage and an alleged incomplete and insufficient expropriation process.  I have informed the complainant accordingly.

Yours sincerely,

Teresa Anjinho
European Ombudsman

Strasbourg, 02/07/2026

 

Annex: Questions to the EIB in case 2920/2025/KW

The Ombudsman would be grateful if the EIB could, in its written reply, address the matters raised in the complaint, including also a reply to the following questions:

General

1. We understand that there has been no disbursement of funds in relation to this project yet and the payment is dependent on the promoter having a valid permit. Could the EIB confirm our understanding?

Monitoring and mitigation measures

2. How does the EIB monitor and ensure compliance with the mitigation measures identified in the Environmental and Social Data Sheet and the related conditions contained in the financing decision and subsequent contract? Is the fulfilment of these conditions necessary for the disbursement of the loan?

Screen-out decision

3. The Environmental and Social Data Sheet from 6 February 2024 states that the screen-out decision was made available to the public in August 2023. However, the Conclusions Report establishes that the final screen-out decision was not in fact published. Could the EIB explain this discrepancy? 

4. It appears that the August 2023 screen-out decision was challenged by the Aarhus Centre in March 2024, thus after the approval of the financing decision. The finance contract was signed on 8 May 2025.

Was this information regarding the above-mentioned action taken into account by the EIB when signing the financing contract in question?

5. The EIB Complaints Mechanism in its Conclusions Report required the promoter to publish the screen-out decision, which is a requirement under the EIA Directive[5], by 12 August 2025. Has the promoter published the screen-out decision in the meantime?

Non-disclosure of environmental information and public participation

The EIB is obliged to actively and systematically disseminate environmental information it holds. In particular, Article 4(2)(g) of the Aarhus Regulation requires environmental impact studies and environmental risk assessments to be included in public databases or registers or at least referenced so that the public can access them. In line with Article 4.7 of the EIB Group Transparency Policy, the EIB shall publish project summaries of all investment projects at least three weeks before the project is considered for approval by the EIB’s Board of Directors. Moreover, Article 4.8 of the EIB Group Transparency Policy specifies that environmental information should be provided as early as possible in the project cycle

In this case, the Environmental and Data Sheet was published on 7 February 2024, thus after the adoption of the financing decision on 6 February 2024. Moreover, while the Critical Habitats Assessment of September 2025 was published at a later stage, on 29 January 2026.

6. Could the EIB explain why the Environmental and Social Data Sheet at issue was not published before the adoption of the funding decision, why there was a delay in publishing the Critical Habitat Assessment and why no other environmental information has been made publicly available in accordance with Article 4.8 of the EIB Group Transparency Policy? 

 

[1] Regulation (EC) No 1367/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 September 2006 on the application of the provisions of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters to Community institutions and bodies

[2]  Encrypted emails can be sent to our dedicated mailbox. Information and documents of this kind will be deleted from the European Ombudsman’s files shortly after the inquiry has ended.

[3] See footnote 3 above.

[4] These aspects were: the EIB‘s failure to assess the effects of excessive wind power density and ecological and geotechnical risks as well as possible infringements of privacy and the protection of personal data.

[5] Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02011L0092-20140515.