The Historical Archives of the European Union announces the opening of 389 additional files pertaining to the European Investment Bank’s (EIB) financing of development projects and the publication of an associated analytical inventory for online consultation in the Archives’ database. The files document 132 projects financed by the bank between 1967 and 1971 and comprise project descriptions, loan agreements and monitoring reports. Some files also include photographs, technical drawings and maps.
Most of the projects described in this set of files were implemented in Italy, France and the Federal Republic of Germany, with a few also funded in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. There are also dossiers documenting 12 loans for projects situated in member countries of the Associated African States and Madagascar, signatory to the Yaoundé Convention signed with the EEC in 1963.
The files shed light on the types of projects funded by the EIB, which at that time aimed to stimulate modernization and development across a range of sectors including transport, education, manufacturing, industry, energy and water management. For example, one project in Vercelli, Italy, financed a salvage operation to recover a textile plant damaged by a devastating flood, while another in the Netherlands supported the construction of chemical plants. The Ivory Coast received a loan for the construction of industrial facilities for the production of juices and essences extracted from native plants. Finally, the files include the contract for the loan to start construction on new buildings for the Ecole européenne de Luxembourg.
The EIB is the financial institution of the European Union created by the Treaties of Rome (1957) to contribute to regional development and economic cohesion. Its historical archives were deposited at the HAEU under the terms of a convention signed on 1 July 2005 with then EIB Vice-President Gerlando Genuardi. Since 2015 the EIB transfers its archives to the HAEU under the 2015 Framework Partnership Agreement between the HAUE and the EU institutions.
Consult the inventory of the holdings of the European Investment Bank here.
Photo: Fact-finding visit to the flooded town of Vercelli in Italy’s Piemonte region in 1968, the site of the EIB-funded ‘Chatillon’ project implemented to recover textile facilities damaged in the flood. Photo by Luigi Fiorini, © Luigi Fiorini 1968. Archival source here.