EIB – sovereign
- Score:
- 46.3
- Position:
- 7 / 10 (Sovereign)
Overview
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union’s (EU) bank and is owned by its member states. EIB works with other EU institutions to support EU policy and provides lending, blended finance, and technical advice for investment both within and outside the EU. EIB was established in 1958. EIB Global, a branch of EIB focused on development finance and operations outside the EU, was established in early 2022.
Analysis
EIB’s sovereign portfolio placed 7th among the 10 sovereign DFIs assessed, holding the same rank as in 2023, when 9 institutions were assessed. Its score, however, rose from 37 to 46.3 out of 100. A key improvement since 2023 was that most of the projects from the sample were found on IATI, meaning EIB scored more points for format. However, EIB continued to lose points on key indicators such as activity indicators/metrics, results, and loan agreement/contract. One main drawback is that EIB still does not disclose whether a project is a sovereign or non-sovereign activity and the E&S risk category, therefore making it difficult to assess the characteristics of investments and what level of E&S disclosure should be required.
EIB ranked 6th with a score of 16.81 out of 30 in the Core Information component, maintaining the same position as in 2023 but increasing from 12.75 points. Other than more consistent disclosure on investment instrument, all the point increases in this component were down to projects being published to IATI. Many data points were not in the bulk download file, however, causing EIB to lose some format points. EIB lost points for inconsistently disclosing sub-national location, something it had passed in 2023. EIB continued not to score for the sovereign/non-sovereign indicator, disbursement, funding source, client contact, E&S category, approval date, last update date and investment contract.
In the Impact Management component, EIB’s sovereign portfolio ranked third-last with a score of 11 out of 20, keeping the same rank as in 2023 but improving from 8 points. One improvement was the publication of country and sector strategies. EIB continued to not score for any project-level indicators including impact metrics and results.
EIB came 6th in the ESG and Accountability to Communities component, scoring 16.75 out of 30 and progressing from its position at 7th in 2023 with a score of 14.58. It showed progress at the organisational level by clearly stating which E&S documents will be disclosed for medium- and high-risk projects, explaining its E&S risk categorisation, and including a statement that it will inform project-affected people about the availability of the IAM. As a result, EIB scored 100 per cent on all organisational level indicators in this component. At the project level, it failed all indicators except summary of E&S risks and IAM disclosure on project pages. As E&S categories for investments were unclear, all were treated as potentially high risk, and assessed accordingly. The EIB lost points on some project-level indicators it had passed in 2023, due to inconsistent disclosure of produced E&S documents and statements on informing project-affected people.
In the Financial Information component, EIB’s sovereign portfolio ranked second-last with a score of 1.75 out of 15. In 2023, it came joint third-last of the 9 institutions assessed. While it lost points scored in 2023 on co-financing due to inconsistent disclosure, it gained points from the new climate finance methodology indicator. It continued not to score points on investment currency and loan pricing. It did not score for the new project-level climate finance indicators.
Recommendations
- EIB should clearly label whether individual investments are sovereign or non-sovereign.
- It should ensure its latest policy documents are uploaded to the IATI Registry, including annual report, sector or country strategies and financial statements.
- EIB should add more data points to its bulk download file that are already disclosed on its webpage, including unique identifier, status, objectives, sub-sector, investment instrument, total investment cost, client name and disclosure date.
- It should disclose further Core Information data including domicile, disbursement, client contact, E&S risk category and last update date. It should consistently disclose sub-national location, funding source and approval date.
- It should publish its approach to determining impact attribution.
- It should disclose project-level Impact Management indicators, including additionality statements, activity indicators/metrics and results.
- EIB should publish E&S documents for all investments, including the minimum documentation for higher risk projects.
- EIB should provide assurance of community disclosure for investments when disclosure is required.
- For Financial Information indicators it should disclose for currency of investment, loan pricing and climate finance data. It should consistently disclose for co-financing.