Complaints Mechanism Activity Report 2015

The EIB Complaints Mechanism Activity Report 2015 is prepared in accordance with the EIB-CM Principles, Terms of Reference and Rules of Procedure as approved by the EIB’s Board of Directors in 2010. It includes the EIB related cases dealt with by the European Ombudsman who also releases its own Activity Report, covering all EU Institutions and bodies.

The 2015 EIB-CM Activity Report outlines the activities performed and includes:

• An overview of its Principles, Functions, Policies and Procedures, Resources and Organisation;
• A statistical analysis of complaints handled, including those complaints that have been brought to the European Ombudsman against the EIB;
• Some examples of cases and themes;
• International and inter-institutional co-operation with peer Accountability Mechanisms of other International Financial Institutions and Multilateral Development Banks;
• Inter-institutional co-operation, within and beyond the EU framework, and dialogue with Civil Society Organisations.

The trend, of last years, of a large number of cases being more and more complex, continued in 2015. The EIB-CM was, however, again able to reduce its stock of outstanding complaints at the end of the year. In 2015, the efforts continued to handle complaints within the timeframe set by the EIB-CM Operating Procedures. During the year, 92 cases were handled; closing 59 and leaving 33 cases open at the end of the calendar year.

The EIB-CM has been effective in identifying and addressing legitimate complaints in cases closed in 2015. In 26% of the cases, EIB-CM found no grounds for the complaint. In 10% of the cases, areas for improvement have been identified and in 12% of the cases a friendly solution was found. 28% of the cases were handled/resolved together with the EIB services involved. The remainder of the cases were either dropped by the complainant, inadmissible (after registration) or the financing request was dropped by the promoter.

In 2015, no new complaints were brought to the European Ombudsman. Following on from a draft recommendation issued in 2014, the EO closed the Mopani case taking the view that the EIB had committed maladministration. One case was still pending for the EO’s final decision at the end of 2015.

The EIB-CM has been active in the Network of the IFIs’ Independent Accountability Mechanisms, identifying trends, sharing experiences and lessons learnt as well as to identify and formalise collaboration, notably in complaint cases in co-financed projects.