media RELEASE
Friends of the Earth International
CEE Bankwatch Network
Campaign to Reform the World Bank
MEPs keep alive critical report but fail
to tackle the real problems with the EIB
Brussels, March 17, 2004 – An
international NGO coalition welcomed the
European Parliament’s economic and monetary
affairs committee (EMAC) decision to keep
alive a highly critical report [1] on the
European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU’s
secretive house bank. However, on the basis
of yesterday’s extended debate in the
Committee, NGOs are concerned that the report
will be completely watered down in the
discussions to come.
The rapporteur, Spanish MEP Monica
Ridruejo, was herself very unhappy with the
way EMAC colleagues approached the issue.
Many seemed to have not even read the report.
In her speech she emphasized that the
Parliament is responsible for ensuring
improved corporate governance within the EIB
and pointed out that should it neglect this
responsibility both the Parliament and the
European Commission would be discredited.
“It is not the responsibility of the
European Parliament to agree with the EIB on
the report,” Ms. Ridruejo concluded. “This
makes a fiction of the Parliament’s
supervisory role.”
“The EIB does not live up to the standards
expected of a public financial institution
and needs to change,” said Magda
Stoczkiewicz, leading the EIB campaign for
CEE Bankwatch Network and Friends of the
Earth International. “We believe that the
European Parliament has an important role to
play in stimulating reform within the EIB and
therefore we are calling for thorough
discussion of the issues mentioned in Ms.
Ridruejo’s report.”
To most Europeans, whose taxes help fund
its activities, the EIB is a mystery and
still it continues to resist the kind of
public scrutiny appropriate to its importance
and size. Before the EMAC meeting the bank
acknowledged many of the issues raised in the
report but denied there was a need for urgent
reforms.
Stoczkiewicz added, “The EIB admits there
are problems but wants to keep them under the
carpet. Parliament should look under that
carpet, take a solid stand and ask for a
thorough investigation into the flawed
aspects of the bank’s governance.”
Martin Koehler, from the Italian Campaign
to Reform the World Bank, commented, “It is
important for European policy to have access
to capital through a house bank such as the
EIB. But nobody is helped by a bank which
hides from view in the Luxembourg valleys and
which is so blatantly out of tune with
European developments as the EIB clearly is.
The European Parliament can not allow these
critical issues to be buried
indefinitely.”
For further information contact:
Martin Koehler, Campagna per la Ri forma
della Blanca Modal
Tel: +39 06 7826855
Mobile: +39 333 5920415
Madam Stoczkiewicz, CEE Bankwatch
Network/Friends of the Earth
International
Tel: +31 20 622 13 69
Mobile +31 652 41 03 23
Hannah Ellis, Friends of the Earth
England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Tel: +44 20 7566 1601
Mobile: +44 7952 876 929
More information on the NGO EIB campaign
is available here:
http://www.bankwatch.org/issues/eib/meib.html
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