Episode 30: Europe’s secret €25 billion stash

EU Watchdog Radio

Corporate Europe Observatory and Counter Balance

News, Politics

5 • 1 Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2022

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the latest episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we discuss the European Guarantee Fund (EGF), a secretive €25 billion fund created by the European Investment Bank (EIB), ostensibly to help European businesses in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.The fund aims to use the €25 billion invested by the EIB to inject €200 billion into the European economy. Yet while this may sound good in principle, systemic problems abound with the EGF.Firstly, the EGF itself is so mired in secrecy that it is di...

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening.
0:11.0	You're listening to EU Watchdog Radio.
0:28.5	Hello and welcome to EU Watchdog Radio.
0:32.6	I'm Paul Creeney from Counterbalance, a non-profit organisation holding public investment banks in Europe accountable.
0:40.6	I'll be sharing presenting duties on EU Watchdog Radio with Hans Van Scharen going forward.
0:46.7	But fear not, Hans will be back in a few weeks.
0:51.0	How would you feel if I refuse to tell you who was on today's podcast?
0:56.0	And if I refuse to tell you what they were talking about?
1:00.0	And there is no way I could tell you who they worked for.
1:04.0	This is the attitude currently taken by the European Investment Bank.
1:09.2	The bank is hoping to pump 200 billion euros into the European
1:13.6	economy using its new European guarantee fund. In theory, this fund will help businesses
1:21.1	recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the bank is keeping almost all information about this fund secret.
1:31.2	From who makes the decisions to who will actually benefit, the European Guarantee Fund is shrouded
1:37.0	in mystery.
1:38.7	Thankfully, at EU Watchdog Radio we are far more transparent.
1:43.7	I'm joined today by counterbalance director
1:45.8	Xavier Sol. For over a decade, Xavier has been campaigning to make the European Investment Bank
1:53.4	respect human rights, fight the climate crisis and improve its transparency. We will discuss how the bank is handing out billions of euros of public money while dodging public scrutiny.
2:06.6	We will also talk about what the bank could be hiding.
2:10.6	Spoiler alert, it could be hiding quite a lot.
2:13.6	Xavier will explain how this lack of transparency could allow the European Guarantee
	...

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