EIB plans to continue funding Israel projects amid complaint

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has indicated it has no plans to halt existing funding to Israel despite receiving a formal complaint about its financing of €1 billion of projects in the country involving two UN blacklisted companies.

The complaint was lodged in June by the Hind Rajab Foundation, a Brussels-based non-profit organisation named in memory of a five-year-old girl killed in Gaza by Israeli fire in January last year.

The foundation’s complaint centres on the involvement of Bank Leumi and contracting firm Electra in EIB projects. The two Israeli firms are named on a United Nations blacklist for their business activities in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The UN database was last updated in June 2023.

Although each case is different, on average a compliance investigation can last between six to 12 months from the date the complaint is filed, rising to 12 to 18 months for a mediation process, said Stephanie Amoako from Accountability Counsel, a non-governmental organisation which helps impacted communities files complaints.

“We do have significant concerns about the complaints mechanism,” Amoako said in an interview with the Luxembourg Times, citing understaffing, a lack of consultation with communities impacted by projects and the fact that the EIB is not compelled to implement recommendations.

“The complaints mechanism process receives a lot of complaints each year because of the quite broad criteria. There are not the resources to do all of them to the extent we want to see. The EIB is under-resourced in the complaints process,” she said.

“The final process will have recommendations agreed by management but there is no action plan for management on what they will do,” added Amoako.

Read the full article from the Luxembourg Times here.