* Admissibility date reflects the date the case was officially registered. All other dates pertain to the date in which a stage was completed.
Case Description
Complaint
On 1 March 2012, the EIB Complaints Mechanism (EIB-CM) received a complaint concerning a sub-project of the Municipal and Regional Infrastructure Loan in Serbia. The complainant alleged that the investor and the beneficiary of the contested sub-project began substantial construction works in August 2011 without any prior notice to the complainant, who resided in one of the two apartments at the ground floor of the concerned building. The complainant alleged that the construction works were causing significant damage to his health and safety and stated that, when applying for the funds, the beneficiary and the investor of the EIB financial assistance had concealed the fact that private tenants lived inside the building.
EIB-CM Action
Following the negative outcome of the mediation process due to the complainant’s refusal to accept the promoter’s offer (temporary relocation under the explicit reassurance that the abandonment of the flat would not lead to the extinction of the right to lease, renovation of the apartment and compensation of suffered damages), the EIB-CM carried out its review of the compliance of the contested operation.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Taking into consideration that the non-compliance identified concerned only one of the sub projects of the Framework Loan, the importance and sensitivity of many other unchallenged sub-projects assisted by the EIB as part of the Municipal and Regional Infrastructure Loan and the promoter’s attempts to mitigate health and safety risks caused by the original non-compliance in a satisfactory manner, the EIB accepted the promoter’s proposal to withdraw the sub-project Reconstruction of the Students’ Dormitory Patris from the list of projects financed under the Municipal and Regional Infrastructure Loan.