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august 12, amsterdam / prague
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cee bankwatch network
friends of the earth international
old wine in a new bottle - the eib's new
environmental structure
During its Annual Press Conference in
February the European Investment Bank (EIB)
announced that it would set up a new
environmental structure within the bank to
better address environmental concerns in its
lending. However, several NGOs recently
received information showing that the whole
process seems to entail merely cosmetic
changes of the existing structure rather than
real reform.
'It's old wine in a new bottle', says
Magda Stoczkiewicz, who heads the EIB reform
campaign for CEE Bankwatch Network and
Friends of the Earth International. 'The EIB
claims to be undergoing major change by
setting up three new environmental bodies,
while at the same time only one additional
person with any environmental expertise has
been hired. The rest are the same engineers
and economists as before'.
NGOs have strongly criticised the EIB's
environmental record, lack of clear
environmental guidelines and policy of
leaving all the responsibility for
Environmental Impact Assessment compliance to
the promoter. The environmental groups argue
that when financing projects in such
environmentally sensitive sectors as energy,
water, waste or transport, the bank needs
much more expertise and capacity for tackling
environmental questions.
The EIB web site states: "Based on the
experience of comparable financial
institutions and its own expertise, which
have guaranteed the Bank's good environmental
record in the past, the EIB's Management
Committee has endorsed three major
developments: - establishment of a
high-level, cross-Directorate environmental
steering committee (ENVSC) to provide
guidance to the Bank's decision-making bodies
on new key policy issues in this area as they
arise; - strengthening of the environmental
assessment capability of the Bank's Projects
Directorate by continuously developing
methodologies and enhancing expertise through
the setting-up of a specialised environmental
assessment group (ENVAG); - creation of an
environmental unit (ENVU), also within the
Projects Directorate, as a focal point for
the development and dissemination of the
Bank's environmental policies and procedures
and responsible for nurturing existing and
new external relations on the
environment."
Stoczkiewicz responds: "This would be a
very welcome step in the EIB's responsiveness
towards environmental concerns, if only we
could see real change with this new set-up.
As far as we can tell, however, the bank's
environmental expertise has not really
increased. There are three new bodies, but
only one (!) new person has been hired, whose
name has not been revealed to us, nor has the
level of his or her environmental expertise.
After the creation of ENVAG, the
responsibility for EIAs still remains solely
with the project promoter, who has an
interest in receiving the loan. NGOs have
pointed out this conflict of interest for the
last five years and continue to demand a
clear mechanism under which the bank could
verify EIA quality."
It is also interesting that the Bank does
not seem to be looking for more environmental
specialists to fulfil its growing needs with
the new environmental structure. When
searching through job opportunities at the
bank one finds that the bank is proposing to
hire more engineers and economists but no
environmental specialists. "The bank still
cannot understand that sustainable
development - to which it should be committed
under the EU Treaty - involves more than the
size of sound barriers along highways. It
will have to complement the new structure
with concrete actions fostering sustainable
development, something which we have yet to
see", concludes Stoczkiewicz.
For more information:
Magda Stoczkiewicz
(+31) 20 622 13 69 or (+31) 652 41 03 23
magdas@foeeurope.org
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