Based in Luxembourg, where it has wallowed in relative obscurity while picking up an increasing number of mandates to lend money outside the EU, the EIB is now in crisis-related "hurry up" mode. It has more money to allocate (this year and next its disbursements will top 70bn euros per year) and is proceeding to do so.

EuroTribers may recall the EIB's involvement recently in a major offshore wind project that Jérôme brought to a close. Such interventions are worthy of applause, but an increasing number of politicians and environmental groups want the EIB to be doing more like this, and on a more reliable basis.

This long diary is based on a factsheet recently issued by the NGO coalition called Counter Balance: Challenging the European Investment Bank. It details several of the problematic elements at play in the EIB's aggressive new crisis role, and is addressed primarily at the new intake of MEPs to the European Parliament which now has increased oversight over the EIB.  

An institution we've not discussed to date - diary rescue by dvx