Publications Back to menu >
Studies  
Download pdf:
 “Corporate welfare and development deceptions. Why the European Investment Bank is failing to deliver outside the EU”

December 2009

In the report, Counter Balance concludes that the EIB should no longer be entrusted with a major role in European development work and calls for the bank to be stripped of its lending powers outside the European Union.
Download pdf:
 EU infrastructure investments - for whose profit? The infrastructure portfolio of the European Investment Bank in the South

December 2009

The report looks into EIB's role in Southern countries, its role in different Africa-EU partnerships and into the nexus between infrastructure and environment. It assesses several case studies of EIB financed projects and raises the question of who profits from projects and what development model the EIB follows. The report poses the question of EIB's role in European energy security strategies and proposes changes for EIB's lending and set-up.
Download pdf:

RDC Grand Inga Dam is Conrad’s Nightmare - The World’s Biggest Dam and Development’s Heart of Darkness

November 2009

This is the story of what may be the world’s largest dam, an $80 billion,

40 000 megawatt (MW) megalith in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) called Grand Inga, and the oddities that surround it: not least the 6,000km long electrical transmission line that would be built through the tropical rainforest, across the Sahara Desert and Darfur, through Egypt and the Mediterranean to bring the electricity to its destination—not poor Africans, but wealthy European consumers.
Download pdf:
 Flying in the face of development. How European Investment Bank loans enable tax havens

July 2009

This report, commissioned by Counter Balance to Eurodad policy analyst Marta Ruiz, is an analysis of EIB loans for development projects to borrowers using tax evasion & tax avoidance schemes.
Download pdf:
 Coherent for development?

April 2009

Development check of the financing activities of the European Investment Bank is essential reading for those who wish to follow the debate on transparency, monitoring and coherence between EIB operations and EU policies outside the EU27.
Download pdf:
 Soul mining: The EIB's role in the Tenke Fungurume Mine, DRC

September 2008

The conclusion of this research is that the Tenke Fugurume Mining project is based on an unclear mining contract, with considerable doubts concerning corruption. This situation was already known when the EIB decided to grant the loan for this project. Moreover this project will not benefit the DRC. The mining has already started, and serious problems are already apparent, and it is above all the local populations that are suffering.
Download pdf:
 The Gilgel Gibe affair: an analysis of the Gilbel Gibe hydroelectric projects in Ethiopia

February 2008

The study illustrates the dangers that accompany large energy infrastructure projects whenever the interests of a major private company coincide not only with weak governance in the host country but also very clear willingness from financial institutions to provide funding, in spite of alarming project oversights and impacts. The study shows how goals to eradicate poverty and support local communities can be easily compromised when major corporations and/or political elites are intent on maximising profits.
Download pdf:
 European Investment Bank: Promoting sustainable development, where appropriate

November 2007

This report aims to inform the ongoing review of environmental and social practices within the EIB by examining the standards endorsed by the EIB in a variety of social policy areas, and identifying ‘international best practices’ against which the EIB’s new framework will invariably be judged.
Download pdf:
 Raising the bar on big dams: making the case for dam policy reform at the European Investment Bank

November 2007

This report describes the problems with past EIB dam projects, how the WCD might have been invoked to bring “added value” to the process, and ways forward to improve the EIB’s role in water and energy projects in future.