Closed on 30/06/2023
* Admissibility date reflects the date the case was officially registered. All other dates pertain to the date in which a stage was completed.
Case Description
Complaint
On 3 March 2019, a CEE Bankwatch Network member submitted a complaint to the EIB Complaints Mechanism (EIB-CM) regarding the Corridor Côtier – Section Nord project. The complaint concerns the Bank’s failure to provide a timely reply and disclose the requested documents.
The complainant had requested access to a series of documents in an email addressed to the Bank on 7 December 2018. She submitted a confirmatory application on 3 February 2019. The EIB formally responded to the complainant's request for documents in two batches: the first response was provided on 1 March 2019, i.e. 55 working days following receipt of the request, and the second (more comprehensive) response was provided on 15 April 2019, i.e. 86 working days following receipt of the request.
Conclusion
The Bank’s response exceeded the time limits set forth in its Transparency Policy (TP). The EIB-CM notes that at the time of the request for documents and the Bank’s reply, the Bank was not in possession of five of the seven requested documents (all those related to environmental and social mitigation measures). Submission of these documents was made conditional to the first disbursement of the loan, which was yet to take place. With regard to the two other requested documents: in EIB-CM’s view, the arguments concerning the complexity of the request for information and the need for consultation with the Promoter could not be used to fully justify the delay of 56 additional working days for providing the Bank’s final response (beyond the 30 working days as indicated in the EIB-TP for exceptional cases).
The EIB-CM was of the opinion that the Bank could have (i) informed the complainant about its inability to disclose five of the seven requested documents and (ii) released the other two documents to the complainant much earlier, within the time limits of 15 or at the latest 30 working days as indicated in the EIB-TP for exceptional cases.
Outcome
It is important for the Bank to handle requests for access to environmental information promptly. In cases where the Bank is not in possession of information requested, it is expected to inform the applicant accordingly and without any further delay. The EIB-CM suggested that, as part of the forthcoming review of the Bank’s TP, the Bank considers the need to develop detailed implementation guidelines for more complex cases.
Monitoring
The EIB-CM started to formally monitor implementation of the recommendations/suggestions for improvement (‘areas for improvement’ issued in its conclusions report) in the last quarter of 2020. For more than two years, the EIB-CM has been following up with the EIB operational services on the areas for improvement. During this period, the competent EIB operational service provided regular updates about the progress. The competent operational service provided evidence to the EIB-CM that it had taken the necessary internal measures to provide practical guidance to EIB staff, taking into account the revised TP (following its adoption in November 2021) and the lessons learnt from this case. On this basis, the EIB-CM closed the monitoring process for this case at the end of Q2 2023.