The European Investment Bank (EIB) is committed to maintaining a stringent policy against tax fraud, tax evasion and harmful tax practices as well as money laundering and terrorism financing.

The EIB adheres to the relevant policies of the European Union as well as to the international policies to which the EU contributes. This includes the policies set by the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Financial Stability Board, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Organisation for economic cooperation and development (OECD).

The EIB is fully involved with the international efforts to exert pressure on Non-Compliant Jurisdictions (NCJs) in order to persuade them to align with international standards. The EIB strictly relies on and conforms to the list of non-compliant and monitored jurisdictions and reports produced by these lead organisations.

The Bank has several instruments at its disposal to reject or stop lending operations linked to NCJs and can impose relocation conditions when providing finance.

The Bank carries out an enhanced due diligence on every operation with a potential link to an NCJ, including integrity checks on the key promoters of the project.

The enhanced EIB due diligence establishes the transparency and integrity of the financial structure of the project, the economic justification for such structure and the tax disclosure requirements.

The EIB will not sign a cross border contract with a counterpart located in a blacklisted NCJ (this prohibition enters into force immediately after blacklisting) or grey listed NCJ (this prohibition enters into force six months after the grey listing of the country) unless the relevant counterparty relocates.

Furthermore the EIB applies stricter tax disclosure clauses on all relevant counterparties located in NCJs and imposes tax disclosure obligations on high-risk cross-border operations even if there is no NCJ link.

The contractual remedies include cancellation or suspension of credit and exclusion from future EIB operations.

The attached policy is an updated version of the previous EIB policy adopted in 2009. It is at the forefront of what is currently enforced by International Financial Institutions.

Also attached are a set of Frequently Asked Questions about the EIB policy regarding Non-Compliant Jurisdictions.