How to lodge a complaint?

The EIB has a complaints mechanism consisting of an internal procedure as well as an external and fully independent element. The internal mechanism is handled by the EIB Complaints Office while the European Ombudsman acts as the independent accountability mechanism of the EIB.

Any natural or legal person affected, or feeling affected, by a decision of the EIB may lodge a complaint with the EIB' Secretary General. A complaint can be lodged via a written communication addressed to the Secretary General of the EIB, via email to the dedicated email address complaints@eib.org.

The EIB cannot deal with complaints from anonymous parties, but treats all complaints confidentially unless the right of confidentiality has been expressly waived by the complainant. The subject of the complaint - which may range from access to information, to environmental and/or social impacts of projects, from procurement procedures to human resource issues, from customer relations to other issues - must be clearly stated as well as what the complainant expects to achieve with the complaint.

If EU citizens or any natural or legal person residing or having its registered office in an EU Member State feels that the EIB has not dealt with their complaint in a timely and/or correct manner they can, in accordance with Article 195 of the EC Treaty, lodge a complaint of maladministration against the EIB with the European Ombudsman. www.ombudsman.europa.eu. (Maladministration occurs when a public body fails to act in accordance with rules or principles which are binding upon it.) Following the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding between the EIB and the European Ombudsman on 9 July 2008, the latter commits himself to systematically review complaints from citizens or residents from non-EU countries by using his own-initiative power to open an inquiry into the matter.