Supporting the EU’s external action
The EIB is the largest supranational borrower and lender in the world. As the bank of the European Union, it mainly operates in the 27 Member States. Nevertheless, roughly 10% of its lending goes to projects outside the Union. In 2011 this amounted to some EUR 7bn.
Most of the Bank’s financing operations outside the Union are carried out under an EU budget guarantee, set out in the external mandates for EIB activities in different regions of the world: Pre-Accession countries, Southern and Eastern neighbours and Partnership countries in Asia, Latin America and South Africa.
