* 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 12 August 2025, the EIB-CM received a complaint from the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) regarding the EIB financing to four operations in Israel: three intermediated lending operations (Israel Loan for SMEs and Mid-Caps and Green Transition; Financial Inclusion and Green Transition Facility and Financial Inclusion Guarantee Facility) and a loan for an infrastructure project (Tel Aviv Light Rail Transit Green Line).
The HRF points out that the four operations involve companies that are included in a database created by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN database), which lists all business enterprises carrying out certain specified activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). The complainant alleges that, by continuing its financial support to those companies, the EIB is violating its obligations under international law, especially those stemming from the advisory opinion issued on 19 July 2024 by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – Allegation 1.
In addition, the complainant alleges that the EIB did not put in place adequate safeguards to prevent the use of its funds to support settlement-related activities in the OPT – Allegation 2.
Work performed
The EIB-CM conducted a compliance review of the two allegations raised by the complainant in light of the nature and effects of the UN database and of the ICJ’s advisory opinion of 19 July 2024. Moreover, the EIB-CM took into account the European Commission’s Guidelines on the eligibility of Israeli entities for EU support, to the extent that they form part of the framework for the EIB’s intermediated lending operations.
The EIB-CM reviewed the due diligence performed by EIB in the context of its appraisal of the four operations in Israel and the contractual clauses introducing specific conditions for the use of EIB funds by the Israeli companies concerned by the operations. Lastly, the EIB-CM examined the EIB’s approach to verify the practical implementation of said clauses and relevant safeguards. Based on the analysed information, the EIB-CM prepared the conclusions report.
Conclusion
The EIB-CM found that the first allegation is ungrounded, as the UN database and the ICJ’s advisory opinion do not produce any binding legal effects. In any case, the EIB has structured the above mentioned financing operations in Israel in a manner that is aligned with the EU’s position not to recognise Israel’s unlawful occupation of Palestinian territories and to differentiate, in all financial dealings with Israel, between the territory within Israel’s pre-1967 borders and the territory unlawfully occupied by Israel in Palestine.
Regarding the second allegation, the EIB-CM found that the EIB, as part of its due diligence on the four operations in Israel, had properly identified the compliance risks that the operations entailed for the EIB, for instance the fact that they involve companies listed in the UN database.
In addition, the EIB-CM found that the EIB put in place adequate contractual safeguards to prevent the misuse of its funds for activities related to unlawful Israeli settlements in the OPT, notably by imposing special eligibility conditions for the allocations proposed by its financial intermediary in Israel.
Nevertheless, the EIB-CM found that, in the context of the EIB’s intermediated lending operations, there was room to strengthen the EIB’s initial system of checks on the implementation of such special eligibility conditions for the allocations. Considering however that the EIB adopted without delay the measures proposed by the EIB-CM to enhance such system of checks, the EIB-CM concludes that the second allegation was partially grounded at the time the complaint was submitted but that the issues have since been remedied.
Outcome
The EIB-CM does not issue any recommendation with regard to the second allegation because the EIB adopted the measures proposed by the EIB-CM during the complaints handling process. The EIB-CM strongly encourages the EIB to continue applying the enhanced system of checks to all future allocations and transactions proposed by its financial intermediary in Israel, and in general to any operation involving entities listed in the UN database.