(1)

Since 1963, the European Investment Bank (the ‘EIB’) has undertaken operations outside the Community in support of the Community’s external policies.

(2)

Most of those operations have been carried out upon request by the Council and have benefited from a Community budgetary guarantee administered by the Commission. Most recently, the Community guarantee was established for the period 2000-2007 by Council Decision 2000/24/EC of 22 December 1999 granting a Community guarantee against losses under loans for projects outside the Community (Central and Eastern Europe, Mediterranean countries, Latin America and Asia and the Republic of South Africa) (2) and by Decisions 2001/777/EC (3) and 2005/48/EC (4) for regionally specific lending actions.

(3)

With a view to supporting EU external action without affecting the EIB’s credit standing, the EIB should be offered a Community budgetary guarantee for operations carried out outside the Community. The EIB should be encouraged to increase its operations outside the Community without recourse to the Community guarantee, particularly in the pre-accession countries and the Mediterranean as well as in investment grade countries in other regions, while the nature of the coverage of the Community guarantee should be clarified as covering risks of a political or sovereign nature.

(4)

The Community guarantee should cover losses under loans and loan guarantees for EIB eligible investment projects carried out in countries covered by the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (5) (the ‘IPA’), the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (6) (the ‘ENPI’) and the Development Cooperation Instrument (the ‘DCI’), where the loan financing or guarantee has been granted according to a signed agreement which has neither expired nor been cancelled (‘EIB Financing Operations’).

(5)

The amounts covered by the Community guarantee under this Decision should represent ceilings for financing by the EIB under the Community guarantee. They should not form targets that the EIB should necessarily meet.

(6)

The EU’s external relations policies have been revised and broadened in recent years. This has notably been the case for the Pre-Accession Strategy as set out in the Commission’s 2005 Enlargement Strategy Paper, for the European Neighbourhood Policy, as set out in the Commission’s Strategy Paper of 12 May 2004, for the renewed partnerships with Latin America and South-East Asia and for the EU’s Strategic Partnerships with Russia, China and India.

(7)

From 2007, the EU’s external relations will also be supported by the new financial instruments, i.e. the IPA, the ENPI, the DCI and by the Instrument for Stability (7).

(8)

EIB Financing Operations should be consistent with and support EU external policies including specific regional objectives. By ensuring overall coherence with EU actions, EIB financing should be complementary to corresponding Community assistance policies, programs and instruments in the different regions. Moreover, the protection of the environment and energy security of the Member States should form part of the EIB’s financing objectives in all eligible regions. EIB Financing Operations should take place in countries complying with appropriate conditionality consistent with EU high level agreements on political and macro-economic aspects.

(9)

The policy dialogue between the Commission and the EIB, as well as strategic planning and coherence between EIB and Commission financing should be strengthened. The link between EIB activities outside the Community and EU policies should be strengthened via enhanced cooperation between the EIB and the Commission at central, as well as at field level. Such strengthened coordination should include, inter alia, early mutual consultation with respect to policy matters, preparation of papers of mutual significance and project pipelines. Of particular importance will be early consultation on strategic programming documents prepared by the Commission or by the EIB, to maximise synergies between EIB and Commission activities and measure progress towards the fulfilment of relevant EU policy objectives.

(10)

With regard to pre-accession countries, EIB financing in those countries should reflect the priorities established in the Accession and European Partnerships, in the Stabilisation and Association agreements and in negotiations with the EU. The focus of EU action in the Western Balkans should continue to shift progressively from reconstruction to pre-accession support. In this context, the EIB activity should, in addition, also seek to encourage the institution building aspect, where relevant, in cooperation with other International Financial Institutions (‘IFIs’) active in the region. Over the period 2007-2013, financing to candidate countries (Croatia, Turkey and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) should increasingly take place under the Pre-Accession Facility made available by the EIB, which should be extended over time to cover the potential candidate countries in the Western Balkans in line with the progress of their accession process.

(11)

With regard to countries covered by the ENPI, the EIB should continue and consolidate its activities in the Mediterranean region, enhancing its focus on private sector development. In this respect, cooperation by partner countries to facilitate private sector development and encourage structural reform, in particular financial sector reform, is needed, as well as other measures to facilitate EIB activities, in particular to ensure that the EIB can issue bonds in local markets. As regards Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus and Russia, the EIB should enhance its activities in the countries concerned in line with appropriate conditionality consistent with EU high level agreements with the country in question on political and macro-economic aspects. In this region, the EIB should finance projects of significant interest to the EU in transport, energy, telecommunications and environmental infrastructure. Priority should be given to projects on extended major Trans European Network axes, projects with cross-border implications for one or more Member States and major projects favouring regional integration through increased connectivity. In the environmental sector, the EIB should in Russia give particular priority to projects within the framework of the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership. In the energy sector, strategic energy supply and energy transport projects are of particular importance. EIB Financing Operations in this region should be carried out in close cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (‘the EBRD’), in particular according to the terms to be set out in a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding between the Commission, the EIB and the EBRD.

(12)

EIB financing in the Asian and Latin American countries will be progressively aligned with the EU cooperation strategy in those regions and be complementary to instruments financed by Community budgetary resources. The EIB should endeavour to progressively expand its activities across a larger number of countries in those regions, including in the less prosperous countries. In support of EU objectives, EIB financing in the Asian and Latin American countries should focus on environmental sustainability (including climate change mitigation) and energy security projects, as well as the continued support of EU presence in Asia and Latin America through Foreign Direct Investment, and the transfer of technology and know how. Taking into account cost-efficiency, the EIB should be able to work also directly with local companies, in particular in the field of environmental sustainability and energy security. The mid-term review will re-examine the objectives of the EIB financing in Asia and Latin America.

(13)

In Central Asia, the EIB should focus on major energy supply and energy transport projects with cross-border implications. EIB financing in Central Asia should be carried out in close cooperation with the EBRD, in particular according to the terms to be set out in a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding between the Commission, the EIB and the EBRD.

(14)

To complement the EIB activities under the Cotonou Agreement for the ACP countries, in South Africa the EIB should focus on infrastructure projects of public interest (including municipal infrastructure, power and water supply) and private sector support, including SMEs. The implementation of the provisions on economic cooperation under the EU-South Africa Trade and Development Cooperation Agreement will further promote EIB activities in this region.

(15)

With a view to enhancing the coherence of overall EU support in the regions concerned, opportunities should be sought to combine EIB financing with EU budgetary resources as appropriate, in the form of grant support, risk capital and interest rate subsidies, alongside technical assistance for project preparation, implementation or enhancement of the legal and regulatory framework, through the IPA, the ENPI, the Instrument for Stability and, for South Africa, the DCI.

(16)

The EIB already closely cooperates with IFIs and with European bilateral institutions. This cooperation is guided by regionally-specific Memoranda of Understanding, which should be approved by the governing bodies of the EIB. In its financing operations outside the EU falling within the scope of this Decision, the EIB should endeavour to further enhance coordination and cooperation with IFIs and with European bilateral institutions where relevant, including, where appropriate, cooperation on sector conditionality, increased use of cofinancing and participation with other IFIs in global initiatives, such as those promoting aid coordination and efficiency.

(17)

Reporting by the EIB and the Commission on EIB Financing Operations should be strengthened. On the basis of the information received from the EIB, the Commission should report, on an annual basis, to the European Parliament and the Council on the EIB Financing Operations carried out under this Decision. The report should, in particular, include a section on value-added in line with EU policies, and a section on cooperation with the Commission, other IFIs and bilateral donors, including on cofinancing.

(18)

The Community guarantee established by this Decision should cover EIB Financing Operations signed during a period beginning on 1 February 2007 and ending on 31 December 2013. In order to be able to take stock of the developments during the first half of that period, the EIB and the Commission should prepare a mid-term review of the Decision. This review should in particular include an external evaluation whose terms of reference are specified in Annex II.

(19)

EIB Financing Operations should continue to be managed in accordance with the EIB’s own rules and procedures, including appropriate control measures, as well as with the relevant rules and procedures concerning the Court of Auditors and OLAF.

(20)

The Guarantee Fund for External Action (the ‘Guarantee Fund’), established by Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2728/94 of 31 October 1994, should continue to provide a liquidity cushion for the Community budget against losses on EIB Financing Operations (8).

(21)

The EIB should prepare, in consultation with the Commission, an indicative multi-annual programme of the volume of signatures of EIB Financing Operations, so as to ensure an appropriate budgetary plan for provisioning the Guarantee Fund. The Commission should take account of this plan in its regular budget programming transmitted to the budgetary authority,