European Investment Bank - 2011 annual report
The European Parliament adopted by a simple majority a resolution on the 2011 Annual Report of the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Parliament points out that a new set of rules for economic, fiscal and budgetary surveillance and discipline have been introduced in the EU, and especially the eurozone, in order to ensure the sustainability of public debt and that this set of rules needs to be urgently backed up by measures designed to boost the economy, industry, growth, competitiveness, innovation and employment, requiring the mobilisation of the EU budget and of the EIB’s lending capacity and expertise.
The report focuses on three main issues:
1. Financial and economic aspects: Parliament stresses there is a crucial need to ensure that the EIB keeps its AAA credit rating, in order to preserve its access to worldwide capital markets under attractive funding conditions that can be transferred to final project promoters. It believes that a further increase in the EIB’s capital would be greatly beneficial to the Union in the context of its need for economic growth. Parliament recalls its insistence, as repeatedly expressed over many years, on the need for prudential banking supervision of the EIB. Parliament proposes that this regulatory supervision should be: (i) exercised by the ECB on the basis of Article 127(6) of the TFEU; or (ii) exercised in the context of the future Banking Union envisaged in the Commission's communication of 12 September 2012; or (iii) failing that and on the basis of a voluntary approach by the EIB, carried out by the European Banking Authority, with or without the participation of one or more national supervisors, or else by an independent auditor. It regrets that the Commission has proposed no action in this regard, despite Parliament’s requests dating back to 2007.
Parliament welcomes the EU 2020 project bond initiative, and calls for a more rapid improvement of the pilot phase and a prompt evaluation of its achievements, with a view to starting with the second phase of the project bonds. It also encourages the EIB to continue its efforts together with the Commission to develop innovative financial instruments, with the objectives of leveraging limited EU budgetary resources in the most efficient way, mobilising private funding sources and promoting risk-sharing instruments for financing key investments for the EU.
2. Internal and external priorities: with a view to maintaining current levels of welfare while Member States are restructuring public financing, Parliament encourages the EIB Group and the Commission to continue supporting the social economy sector and young entrepreneurs. It welcomes the review of the EIB’s mandate for operations outside the Union and supports the EIB’s focus on investing in the long-term prosperity and stability of the EU’s neighbourhood, in particular the Mediterranean area and the countries preparing for EU membership, by financing support in the areas of interconnection, growth, climate change, European FDI and SMEs.
It encourages the EIB to further improve its efforts to conduct lending operations outside the EU and to step up its cooperation with other global and regional development banks, as well as the development finance agencies of Member States, in order to reduce costs and achieve more efficient use of resources.
3. Transparency: Parliament points to the fact that the EIB pursues its efforts against a background of weakly regulated, non-transparent or uncooperative jurisdictions, including by (i): screening the AML-CFT (anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism) capability of financial intermediaries used for its intermediated lending, so that they duly identify the final beneficiaries of EIB funds in accordance with applicable EU AML-CFT Directives or FATF (Financial Action Task Force) standards, as applicable; and (ii): monitoring EIB disbursements through such jurisdictions. It recommends that the implementation of EIB/EU financial instruments should be based on ex ante policy objectives and criteria, combined with a transparent and efficient ex post reporting system that will preserve the independence of the EIB as regards project selection and due diligence.