The European Investment Bank, transport investment and European Union objectives: an exploratory analysis

Abstract Although for over 30 years the European Investment Bank (EIB) has provided large-scale funding for transport infrastructure, its activities in this sphere have not been researched. Working primarily through analyses of European Union (EU) documentation, and of more than 700 transport-related loans made by the Bank between 1986 and 1992, this paper provides insights into the structure of this investment; into the mechanisms which have evolved to sustain its continued growth; and into its relationships to EU priorities for the transport sector. Models of EIB clients are proposed, and it is demonstrated that in the majority of the EU periphery a limited number of ‘dominant’ clients have been essential to the impressive expansion of EIB activity. It is also shown that EIB funding coincides only partially with current EU priorities. Although this divergence can in part be considered more apparent than real (in that it is related to data interpretation issues) it is argued that it is primarily a consequence of the Bank's terms of reference and of its independence of the main Commission bureaucracy. Research opportunities identified include the need for further investigations into the processes of EIB transport-sector investment and its impact.