Outside the EU, the EIB operates under various mandates. In December 2006, the European Council approved a new EIB External Lending Mandate (ELM) for 2007-2013 covering pre-accession countries, the “neighbourhood region” (including the Mediterranean countries, eastern Europe, southern Caucasus and Russia), Asia and Latin American (ALA) countries and South Africa. The ELM provides overall up to EUR 27.8 billion of EU guarantees for providing loans to projects in countries outside the EU. This represents an increase of over EUR 7 billion compared to the previous mandate.

Major concerns surrounding the ELM include its overt commitment to EU “energy security” and to the promotion of the private sector. The EIB’s ALA mandate also requires it to place special emphasis on “the improvement or protection of the environment,” yet its glaring lack of binding operational policies puts the EIB’s capacity to do this adequately into serious doubt.

In Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP), the EIB operates under the Cotonou Partnership Agreement between the EU and the 79 ACP countries, assigning EUR 1.7 billion from its own funds and EUR 2 billion under the Investment Facility, a fund financed from the European Development Fund (composed of EU member state contributions managed by the European Commission) and managed by the EIB. Under Cotonou, the EIB’s mandate is “reducing poverty with the objective of sustainable development”, clearly placing on it the obligations of a development bank. However, the EIB’s deliberate ambivalence about its development function suggests that the EIB is not functionally committed to its assigned task in the ACP regions.

The EIB currently has a special focus on the so called “neighbouring countries” bordering the EU in the south and to the east, providing EUR 12.4 billion as part of “the biggest mandate ever outside the Union” . This mandate is governed by the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) , and sees the EIB’s lending spanning from the Mediterranean region to reinforce lending in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, and further including countries in the southern Caucasus region that were not eligible under previous mandates.

In the Mediterranean region, the EIB has already emerged as the largest lender with the establishment in 2002 of the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (FEMIP). FEMIP was enhanced in 2003 to mainly prioritise lending in the energy sector and the private sector. Under its new mandate the EIB plans to double its activities in the Mediterranean region, with EUR 8.7 billion available for the 2007-2013 period. In Russia and the neighbouring countries to the east, the EIB is particularly focusing on providing loans in the energy sector and supporting transport projects.

Over the 2007-2013 period, the EIB is planning to lend up to EUR 8.7 billion for the EU pre-accession countries, including the current candidate countries (Turkey, Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) and the countries of the Western Balkans that are viewed as potential candidates.

The EIB in Asian and Latin American (ALA) countries

The EIB has operated in ALA countries since 1993. With EUR 3.8 billion foreseen under its new mandate, the EIB’s lending will involve a dramatic increase for that region of 53 percent compared to the previous period. Previously formulated as financing projects of “mutual interest” in the region, the EIB’s new objectives are to “contribute to the energy security of the EU, and continue to support EU Foreign Direct Investment”. These objectives seem to indicate that the new EIB mandate will see it adding to the trend of placing ALA industry and energy in the hands of European companies. The largest chunk of funding is to go to industry and energy loans, with only a small fraction to be allocated for water, infrastructure, transport and agriculture.

The EIB and the African, Carribean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

The EIB’s lending in the ACP countries has grown substantially since 1990 with the EIB providing loans in most of the 79 ACP countries. In ACP countries the EIB lends its own resources and in addition increasingly manages EU budget resources of the European Development Fund (composed of EU member state contributions managed by the European Commission). On behalf of the European Commission, the EIB manages the Cotonou Investment Facility, a risk-bearing instrument established in June 2003, which makes available more resources and new financial instruments. The Investment Facility (IF) , received from the member states, is an endowment to be drawn through the European Development Fund (EDF). The EIB also receives a mandate from the member states to provide lending for projects from its own capital market resources.

Additionally, under the EU-Africa Partnership, a Partnership on Infrastructure has been established supported by a new EU Infrastructure Fund for Africa (Trust Fund) with eligible projects in the energy, transport, water, and information technology sectors. The Africa Trust Fund will provide a combination of grants from the European Commission and loans from the EIB.

In the 2006-2007 start-up phase, the European Community has mobilised EUR 87 million in grants through the 9th EDF, and the EIB has made available EUR 260 million in the form of loans .