Rules on public access to documents adopted by the Bank's Management Committee on 26 March 1997
Date: 1997-03-26
Institutions: European Investment Bank
Subjects: European Investment Bank, access to information, document, personal data, protection of privacy













EUR-Lex - 31997Y0809(01) - EN






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31997Y0809(01)

Rules on public access to documents adopted by the Bank's Management Committee on 26 March 1997  


Official Journal C 243 , 09/08/1997 P. 0013 - 0015 





RULES ON PUBLIC ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS Adopted by the Bank's Management Committee on 26 March 1997 (97/C 243/06)WHEREAS THE EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANKis a financial institution owned by the Member States of the European Union;has the task, under Article 198e of the Treaty establishing the European Community, to contribute, by having recourse to the capital market and utilising its own resources, to the balanced and steady development of the Community by granting loans and guarantees in order to facilitate the financing of investment projects in all sectors of the economy;recognizes the legitimate interest of the citizens of its shareholder States, as well as of citizens in other countries where the Bank lends and borrows funds, to be able to inform themselves about the principles according to which the Bank operates, the objectives, general characteristics and volumes of its operations as well as the outcome of its activities in particular regions, sectors or types of operations;is committed to an active information policy and will continue and strengthen its efforts to provide the public with general information about its activities, policies and practices;will also, where and to the extent appropriate, continue to release basic information on concluded idnividual operations, in agreement with its borrowers;WHEREAS THE BANKrecognises that under the requirements of good administration applicable to Community institutions and bodies, including the Bank, documents should be publicly available to the maximum extent possible, and any denial of access to documents should be justified by reference to rules laid down in advance;WHEREAS THE BANKoperates as a financial institution in both the public and private sectors and depends on the financial markets for the funding of its activities;is, because of the nature of its activities, subject to constraints, like other banks under similar circumstances, as regards transparency and public access to documents;WHEREAS THE BANKmust, in order to be able to carry out its task, ensure that the promoters of projects, actual and potential borrowers, as well as other parties involved in the implementation or financing of a project, can rely on the confidentiality of the banking relationship;has to respect, in its relationships with other institutions, bodies and persons both within and outside the Community framework, the confidentiality of communications and agreements between itself and the latter;WHEREAS THE BANKcannot, given its role as financial institution, undertake to function as a source of documents originating outside the Bank, even as regards documents in the public domain;WHEREAS THE BANKhas a legitimate need, in line with normal practice in the banking and financial sector, to protect any sensitive information the disclosure of which might harm its interests and its position in the pursuit of its task;must, in order to function properly, ensure free and unencumbered exchange of views within the Bank, and avoid external interference in its internal processes of deliberation, preparation and decision-making, and must therefore guard and protect the confidentiality of these processes;has a duty to protect the privacy of the members of its organs, its staff as well as third parties providing services to the Bank and to respect the confidentiality of information concerning their personal, financial and other circumstances;the Bank has adopted the following rules: Scope Article 1 These rules apply where members of the public address the Bank with requests for documents held by the Bank which have not been prepared for the purpose of publication.Procedure Article 2 Requests for documents shall be addressed to the Secretary General of the Bank.Requests shall be answered within reasonable time. Denials shall be justified by reference to these rules.Admissibility of requests Article 3 Requests for documents shall be acted upon only where the applicant has adequately identified himself/herself, the object of the request as well as the purpose for which the request is made. Other requests shall be dismissed.Requests for documents in other than paper form are not admissible.Repeated requests may be dismissed, if a regular and adequate response has already been provided.General rule Article 4 The Bank shall make available documents only where none of the grounds of non-disclosure set out in these rules are applicable. Documents originating outside the Bank Article 5 Access shall not be given to documents which originate from outside the Bank.In respect of information which is known, or can be presumed, to be in the public domain, the applicant may be referred to the origin of the document or to any other known source where the document may be available.Documents originating within the Bank Article 6 Protection of third party interestsAny document containing information about third parties shall not be disclosed, where the information has been identified to the Bank as being confidential, or is covered by an undertaking of confidentiality made by the Bank, or where the information is otherwise of such a nature that it is subject to the Bank's duty of confidentiality toward third parties.The preceding paragraph precludes, in particular, and even in the absence of specific undertaking or identification of confidentiality, the disclosure of- documents relating to actual or potential lending or borrowing operations, to individual projects or investment programs or to the parties actually or potentially involved in such operations or projects, such as appraisal reports and contract documents; as well as- any other documents containing information about- the identity or the financial or other circumstances of actual or potential borrowers, guarantors, co-financiers, financial counterparties or other parties to particular lending or borrowing operations;- the technical, economic or financial characteristics of individual projects or investment programs; as well as the Bank's appraisal, monitoring or evaluation of such matters.The first paragraph also precludes, even in the absence of specific undertaking or identification of confidentiality, the disclosure of documents containing information about any third parties, including bodies such as Community institutions or international organizations with which the Bank has relationships, where the information concerned is not in the public domain.The Bank shall not make available any document containing information the release of which would be contrary to the rules and practices prevailing in the financial markets or would prejudice the equal treatment of investors.Article 7 Protection of the interests of the BankThe Bank shall not make available1. any documents containing information about any aspects of its activity, whether operational, commercial, organizational, procedural, technical or strategic, and including any related arrangements with third parties, contractual or other, where the information, in the judgement of the Bank, taking into account normal practice in the banking and financial sector, is of such a nature that its disclosure could harm the Bank's legitimate interests;2. any internal preparatory documents or other documents produced in the course of internal processes of deliberation, including any proposals or other documents prepared for any Bank's organs in the course of their decision-making process and any records of deliberations within the Bank's services or organs;3. any documents prepared for the purposes of internal administration or internal procedures, including any rules, guidelines or recommendations relating to such administration or procedures;4. any documents forming part of correspondance or other communication with third parties.Article 8 Protection of the interests of staffThe Bank shall not make available any documents containing information about the circumstances, whether personal, financial, professional or other, of present or past members of its organs or staff.Other provisions Article 9 Illegitimate motivesWhere the Bank has reason to believe that the identity of the applicant or the purpose of the request have been misrepresented, or that the request has been made in pursuit of commercial objectives or other motives which do not accord with the purposes that underline the principle of transparency, the request shall be rejected.The Bank may require an undertaking by the applicant not to use documents provided for any purpose referred to in the preceding paragraph, nor to forward them to anyone for such a purpose.Article 10 ExceptionsNo exceptions from the rules under Articles 5, 6 and 8 are possible without the written authorization of the person or body for whose protection the information concerned is confidential.Article 11 CostsAn applicant may be charged with a fee to cover the costs arising from making the documents requested available.