EIB Group Stakeholder Engagement workshop on its draft Policy on preventing and deterring prohibited conduct in EIB Group activities

On Friday, 6 March 2020, the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group consisting of the European Investment Bank (EIB or the Bank) and the European Investment Fund (EIF), organised an engagement workshop to present and discuss its draft revised Policy on Preventing and Deterring Prohibited Conduct in EIB Group Activities (Anti-Fraud Policy). More than 20 participants attended the workshop or followed the live web streaming.

The EIB Group has a zero tolerance of Prohibited Conduct whether occurring in connection with projects and activities financed by the EIB Group or perpetrated by its own staff. The Anti-Fraud Policy is one of the key reference documents guiding the Group’s action in this respect.

The aim of this workshop was to gather stakeholders’ inputs as part of the revision process of the EIB Group Anti-Fraud Policy. This revision was triggered inter alia by recent changes in EU legislation, international best practices, EIB Group policies, as well as lessons learnt from past investigations.

The draft Anti-Fraud Policy was made available to stakeholders ahead of the workshop. Due to the current situation the deadline for submitting written comments is extended to Friday 27 March. The comments can be sent to civilsociety@eib.org. The key changes included in the draft are:

• the fact that the new policy will be a Group policy and therefore will apply to both the EIB and the EIF;
• amendment of the concept of prohibited conducted (particularly regarding obstruction and theft at EIB Group premises);
• enlargement of the scope of the policy.

Stakeholders welcomed the discussion and provided valuable and constructive feedback. Comments covered different aspects of the draft policy, including the cooperation with national authorities, the potential role of civil society to assist the EIB Group, the range and implementation of sanctions, as well as the complementarity of the Anti-Fraud policy and other EIB Group policies.

The EIB would like to thank all the participants to this workshop and is looking forward to receiving stakeholders’ written comments before Friday 27 March.