The European Investment Bank – powering a sustainable future?
Publisher: CEE Bankwatch Network
Volume: 4 pages, pdf
Description:
With a lending portfolio of EUR 72 billion (2010), the European Investment Bank (EIB) - the European Union’s house bank - exists to support the implementation of EU policy. In 2010, roughly 24 percent of the bank’s lending or more than EUR 17 billion was devoted to the energy sector1, making energy the bank’s second largest lending sector after transport and representing a significant increase in its importance in the bank’s lending over the four years since 2007.2 Member States have endorsed the Europe 2020 Strategy that envisages the mobilization of EU resources for reaching climate and energy targets for 2020, namely reducing carbon emissions by 20 or 30 percent, improving energy efficiency by 20 percent and increasing the use of renewable energies by 20 percent. With climate change this high on the European political agenda, it is appropriate to ask where this EUR 17 billion has gone and whether it has indeed been used to support European policy objectives?