Activities of David CORMAND related to 2020/2124(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Financial activities of the European Investment Bank - annual report 2020 - Control of the financial activities of the European Investment Bank - annual report 2019 (debate)
Opinions (1)
OPINION on the financial activities of the European Investment Bank – annual report 2020
Amendments (11)
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Calls on the Member States to urgently agree on capital increase, both cash-in and callable in nature; calls forwelcomes the role the EIB has been playing in the economic recovery linked to the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic; expects in this context for more risks to be taken in the area of green and digital innovation in order to catalyse the just and digital transitions and to stop the financing of stranded assets; expects from the Bank the immediate halt to financing of stranded assets; while acknowledging the potential crowding-out effects of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), calls on the Bank to ensure additionality of investment;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Welcomes the increasing EIB support to the health sector and stresses the need to reinforce public health systems and not contribute to their privatisation; welcomes the investment the EIB is fostering in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, currently estimated at 770 million euros, and its active involvement in financing the development of treatments and vaccines; underlines however the dire need for transparency on this matter, and asks the EIB to fully disclose past and upcoming contracts with pharmaceutical companies.
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Reiterates that all financial flows of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group should be consistent with the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest and the Union’s new climate objective for 2030; looks forward to the adoption in 2020 of an ambitious Climate Bank Roadmap 2021-25 (CBRM), which iwelcomes the adoption of the Climate Bank Roadmap 2021-25 (CBR) on 13 November 2020, and in particular welcomes tohe include a detailed strategic and operational framework with milestones and a shadow carbsion of the shadow carbon pricing mechanism; underlines however that the Roadmap's provisions alone will not be enough for the Bank to be aligned with the Paris Agreement's objectives; calls on the EIB to shorten the transition perice of at least EUR 100/tonne byod allowing non-Paris aligned projects to be approved only until the end of 20251; calls for all EIB group's financial intermediaries and corporate clients to have a decarbonisation plan in place by the end of 2021; expects a more holistic corporate-level engagement and further requirements for corporate compliance with EU climate targets; warns the EIB against potential double- standards with regards to the Roadmap implementation in and outside the EU, and calls on the EIB to apply the same level of climate ambition for all its loans1a; looks forward to the implementing document of the CBR to strengthen the ambition of the Bank. _________________ 1aEIB Group Climate Bank Roadmap 2021-2025, November 2020, point 4.61
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Welcomes the commitment from the EIB in the Climate Bank Roadmap to focus support on sustainable rearing and dairy industries, and in particular to address animal welfare; suggests that the EIB should refrain from investments that facilitate incentives to industrial farming expanding livestock production and which lead directly or indirectly to deforestation and land degradation; calls on the EIB to explicitely exclude the funding of practices such as battery caging and high population densities, tail-docking and routine castration of pigs, and fur farming.
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Expects the EIB to comply with Article 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union by applying the precautionary principle, and to put on hold disbursement, and, if necessary, to withdraw funding, if there is evidence or a serious risk of adverse impacts; expects the EIB to conduct thorough monitoring that fully takes into account concerns expressed by concerned parties and stakeholders, in particular those pertaining to human rights violations; on climate, and/or environment, and/or local communities; calls for the suspension of funding where local authorities have notified possible violations of the relevant legislation, at least until investigations and judicial processes at national level are concluded; expects the inclusion of human rights due diligence obligation for all projects in order to prevent any abuse, unfair expropriation or violence against local populations, and demands from the Bank to take immediate and firm action once it is informed, for instance by human rights and environmental activists or whistleblowers, of the involvement of a client or beneficial owner in a human rights and environment defenders reprisal, and withdraw funding when such involvement is proven; recalls that the Commission asked the EIB to share more information on the effective application of contractual clauses enabling the EIB to halt or withdraw funding 1a and expects that the Parliament will have full access to this information; expects the EIB to conduct thorough monitoring that fully takes into account concerns expressed by concerned parties and stakeholders, in particular those pertaining to human rights violations; demands that the Bank take immediate and firm action once it is informed of the involvement of a client or beneficial owner in a human rights or environmental defenders reprisal; _________________ 1aExecutive summary of the evaluation of Decision No 466/2014/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 granting an EU guarantee to the European Investment Bank against losses under financing operations supporting investment projects outside the Union {SWD(2019) 333 final} 13 September 2019
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Expects the EIB to conduct Human Rights Impact Assessments at project level, as well as to continuously monitor the implementation of projects on the ground; calls in this regard the Bank to engage actively with local communities, and to inform them accordingly of their rights, with a special focus to implement a free, prior and informed consent, including their access to a Complaints Mechanism.
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Expects the CBRM and the EIB’s revised transport lending policy not toto be faull below the standard of EU taxonomyy aligned with the Paris Agreement objectives and to complement the recently adopted CBR; calls for no new loans to be granted that hinder the decarbonisation of transport, and, in particular, no new financing to be awarded for the expansion of airports, for increased road capacity, for port expansions in Europe and related infrastructure or for the shipping of liquefied natural gas; states that the expansion and creation of special economic zones should not be subject to EIB funding; believes that more funding should be directed at low-carbon transportation, especially cycling and public transport, in particular to serve the underserved communities and localities.
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Welcomes the review of the EIB Environmental Social Standards and calls for a wide and inclusive public consultation; expects all projects to include more comprehensive gender and human rights dimensions and due diligence obligations; calls for the EIB to publish ‘Know Your Customer’ checks before approving any project. for all projects; welcomes the progress achieved in the implementation of the EIB Gender strategy, and looks forward to an ambitious version of the upcoming Gender Action Plan II 2021- 2024; suggests to draw on the example of the UK's development finance institution CDC Group's gender strategy and toolkit; calls on the EIB to collect gender- disaggregated data in order to assess and address gender inequality in lending; urges the EIB to assess the gender impact of projects on the ground and conduct gender impact assessments of projects, and to connect with independent experts to this end; suggests that gender mainstreaming becomes a permanent point on the EIB board’s agenda; asks the EIB to allocate more human resources in charge of Human Rights and gender equality; calls for inclusion of the Bank in the scope of the EU directive on the fight against money laundering and in particular to publish ‘Know Your Customer’ checks before approving any project; underlines the importance of independent audits to reveal any shortcomings in the application of Anti- Money Laundering standards, and asks for more transparency, especially to make public any decision made to address said shortcomings; demands that the European Court of Auditors be granted full auditing powers.
Amendment 65 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Highlights that in 2019, 12,5% of EIB loans concerned projects outside of the EU, amounting to around a third of all EU institutions' official development assistance; recalls the Commission's statement that the EIB should better align the External Lending Mandate operations with EU policies1a. _________________ 1a Executive summary of the evaluation of Decision No 466/2014/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 granting an EU guarantee to the European Investment Bank against losses under financing operations supporting investment projects outside the Union {SWD(2019) 333 final} 13 September 2019
Amendment 68 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5 b. Recalls that EIB funds are public money and should always be subject to public scrutiny and accountability; regrets the lack of transparency in the use of EIB loans by the European company Volkswagen, as underlined by the European Ombudsman in its decision of 28 November 2019 which states a "serious misuse of public funds and misrepresentations by a leading European company as to their purpose"1a; calls on the EIB to apply stricter checks and due diligence in order to avoid such similar cases in the future, and more especially to disclose any relevant information related to cases of serious misuses of public funds. _________________ 1aDecision in case 805/2018/MIG on the European Investment Bank’s refusal to grant public access to documents regarding a loan to Volkswagen, 28 November 2019
Amendment 74 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5 c. Notes that the EIB has approved several loans worth hundreds of millions of euros to deploy 5G networks in European Member states; regrets however that prior to these approvals, no comprehensive study has been conducted on the environmental and health impact of the deployment of this technology.