With comments such as “very vague” and stressing the need for “greater detail” in how the EIB will exercise its “discretion to apply EU standards or social standards, or not” (emphasis added), the International Finance Corporation (the World Bank’s private lending arm) has provided its input to the EIB’s public consultation on its currently draft Environmental and Social Statement.

The IFC’s comments are not long, they are brutally concise. They succeed in unravelling some reasonably aspirational proposals on social protection that the EIB is attempting to finesse, unfortunately, with its trademark discretionary language. As IFC notes:

“The effect of these things might mean that you simply would not apply social standards in a majority of your projects outside EU, potentially because you do not ordinarily require the discipline of due diligence on social issues within EU, and hence your internal capacity simply dictates what is possible or not in the emerging markets (but mostly not possible).”

Ouch. A revised draft of the statement, featuring hopefully some fundamentally revised thinking and language, is due soon. A range of inputs to the first draft is available on the EIB website, but oddly lacking are contributions from business. Are we to believe that the EIB’s principal beneficiaries had nowt to say on the new statement, a statement which:

“informs not only the staff of the EIB but also the large number of other parties with whom the Bank works in order to fulfil shared environmental objectives, including other EU institutions, in particular, the European Commission, other Multilateral Financial Institutions (MFI), financial and business interests, and representatives of civil society, including non-governmental organisations (NGO).”

Commercial confidentiality surely has no application in the shaping of shared environmental objectives.