The European Investment Bank has joined the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), a voluntary, multi-stakeholder initiative that seeks to make information about aid and development finance easier to access, use and understand.

The EIB will follow the respected IATI standard for all lending in partner countries outside the European Union. The EIB operates in 160 countries around the world and last year lent more than EUR 7 billion for public and private sector investment outside Europe.

“Ensuring greater transparency will enable the European Investment Bank to reinforce our engagement to finance investment that supports development”, said European Investment Bank President, Werner Hoyer. “As Europe's bank we operate around the world and joining IATI will improve understanding on the ground and allow more effective financial and technical contribution. This will enable a wide range of development stakeholders who are interested, from public officials in partner countries to civil society, to access information about our activities in the IATI standard" he added.

“The European Investment Bank's decision to join IATI can be welcomed and this move demonstrated Europe's commitment to greater transparency in development finance” said European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs. “The EIB plays a key role in supporting Europe's development objectives and its lending contributes significantly to the EU’s external cooperation and development policies. Striving for transparency to make aid and development finance more effective requires effort to implement, however this determination will pay off in the long-run”.

The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) has been operating since 2011 and allows organisations involved in development, including donor and developing countries, civil society organisations and other experts in aid information, as well as both donor and partner countries, to increase the transparency of aid and development finance. Greater participation in IATI will help implement transparency commitments made at the Accra Agenda for Action in the most consistent and coherent ways. IATI has developed and agreed a common, open, international standard – the IATI standard. This sets guidelines for publishing information about aid and development finance spending.

Over the coming months, the EIB will work with the IATI Secretariat to set in place the necessary systems and procedures to implement the IATI reporting standard.