18 Amendments of Isabella ADINOLFI related to 2016/2098(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Takes note of the signature by the EIB in 2015 of EUR 77.5 billion (of which EUR 69.7 billion within and EUR 7.8 billion outside the Union) in new operations in the areas of innovation, SMEs, infrastructure and environment, as well as support for refugee housing and investment in regions affected by the refugee crisis; also takes note that in 2015, EFSI financed 126 projects amounting to EUR 7.5 billion and mobilising EUR 50 billion of investmentsnotes the launch of the EFSI, the legislation governing which entered into force in July 2015; stresses that the programme is failing to ensure the quality, additionality, economic and social usefulness and sustainability of the projects financed;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Deplores the fact that the list of projects selected for funding under the EFSI includes infrastructure with a high environmental impact and dubious additionality, such as steelworks, biorefineries, petrochemical plants and regasification and gas storage facilities; criticises the fact that in many cases the EIB has failed to take action on reports from local authorities, stakeholder communities and civil society groups of environmental and social legislation being breached by funding recipients and by the projects financed, claiming that it was not its responsibility to carry out the necessary investigations; calls on the EIB, with reference to the precautionary principle, to withdraw funding wherever there is any suspicion of environmental infringements and damage to society or to local communities;
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Notes that the considerable EFSI support being provided for energy, energy efficiency and renewable energy projects has been made possible only by cutting ordinary EIB investment in those sectors by an equal amount, thus suggesting that the majority of EFSI loans have not complied with the principle of additionality; takes the view that EFSI- funded loans should be additional to ordinary EIB investment;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1c. Criticises the fact that less than 20% of the projects given EFSI funding approval focus on research, development and innovation, human capital and the environment and energy efficiency;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 d (new)
Paragraph 1 d (new)
1d. Deplores the fact that as much as 15% of all EFSI investment in the energy sector has been channelled into fossil-fuel projects, in particular projects for regasification and gas storage facilities; calls on the EIB to give serious thought to phasing out loans for projects involving the production of non-renewable energy;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 e (new)
Paragraph 1 e (new)
1e. Deplores the almost total lack of information and disaggregated statistics on the projects financed, in particular as regards each individual project’s expected impact, benefits and additionality; calls on the EIB to publish all available information about and findings of impact assessments for operations carried out within the framework of the EFSI; calls also on the EIB to set out in detail the added value and additionality of each individual project financed and the contribution each makes towards the pursuit of the EU’s strategies and long- term objectives;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 f (new)
Paragraph 1 f (new)
1f. Is extremely concerned at the fact that the EIB is looking into the possibility of funding the Turin-Lyon high-speed rail link under the EFSI, despite this major project being excessively costly, unnecessary and economically, socially and environmentally unsustainable;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. WelcomNotes the level of financing of the objectives of economic and social cohesion (EUR 17 634 billion) and rural and urban regeneration (EUR 5 467 billion);
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Recognises that the quality of the loan portfolio remains high thanks to the prudent risk management policies pursued; requests the EIB, however, to increase its risk appetite while maintaining a high loan portfolio level;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Deplores the involvement of the EIB in large-scale infrastructure projects with a serious environmental impact and lacking in real added economic and social value for the local population; calls on the EIB to finance only those projects whose implementation is not environmentally, financially or socially controversial, as demonstrated by a thorough prior assessment and an adequate cost-benefit analysis;
Amendment 39 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Is of the opinion that the EIB should take special care to ensure the reliability and maximum transparency of the network of financial intermediaries, checking that they are not involved in tax avoidance or abuse, corruption, money laundering, organised crime or terrorism, and that they are in a position to finance SMEs in an effective way and in accordance with EU environmental and social standards;
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Is concerned that the SME Initiative is not delivering as planned; notes with concern the very opaque structure of the indirect financing operations for SMEs and the fact that they are carried out through speculative investment funds, which are geared towards maximum short-term profit but are entirely at odds with the objective of supporting the real economy and the SMEs themselves; points out that more effective, direct, and transparent funding mechanisms should therefore be identified;
Amendment 49 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Deplores the fact that the EIB’s transparency policy is still seriously lacking when compared to those of other international institutions, as confirmed by the 2016 Aid Transparency Index; calls on the EIB to publish on its website the disaggregated statistical data relating to each project funded inside and outside the EU, including, in particular, lending operations implemented through financial intermediaries, and to make fully accessible the results of the ex-ante and ex-post impact assessments for each of its projects, with a detailed explanation of the indicators and the selection and evaluation criteria used; calls on the EIB once again to ensure regular publication of the minutes of the meetings of its management and governing bodies;
Amendment 51 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Calls on the EIB to ensure public access to documents concerning internal investigations, reports and audits, particularly when they relate to issues of public interest or projects in which tax abuse or fraud and corruption have been identified, and to make all information fully accessible to Parliament;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Requests the Member States to make full use of their allocation of ESI Funds and additionality, thus complementing EIB loans and financial instruments; asks, moreover, for greater blending of grants with EIB financing; calls on the EIB to refrain from financing in any way projects infiltrated by criminal groups and to put funding for such projects on hold as a precautionary measure while investigations are under way;
Amendment 62 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the EIB to increase its financing of economic and social cohesion as well as of the urban objectives; calls, moreover, for the development of special financial instruments for macroregional strategies; stresses the importance of ensuring the efficient and responsible management of resources, with the aim of safeguarding the bank’s financing capacity for the years to come;
Amendment 65 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Takes the view that an increase in the EIB’s lending activity could be achieved through a better, more balanced allocation of resources; recalls that public-private partnerships (PPP) for the funding of projects of public interest are often founded on poor distribution of the financial risks of the investment, to the detriment of the public sector and to the sole advantage of the private sector, and may therefore lead to considerable losses for the public coffers, but with no real added value for society;
Amendment 66 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8b. Is concerned about the EIB’s readiness to allocate EUR 2 billion to the construction of the final stretch of the TAP (Trans-Adriatic Pipeline); calls on the EIB to refrain from financing in any way this expensive and controversial pipeline as a result of the considerable environmental, financial, seismic, tax and geo-political risks inherent in its construction;