The Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU) has completed the analytical inventory for a recent deposit of 362 archival files from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The files are now published in the HAEU database and available for online consultation.
One part of the deposit concerns the Bank’s governance activities. These files include minutes from the meetings of the EIB’s Board of Governors and the EIB’s Board of Directors in 1993.
Another interesting group of files pertain to the Bank’s lending activities. These files provide information on 109 infrastructure and development projects financed by the EIB between 1971 and 1975, including the very first projects financed in Ireland and the United Kingdom. The investments supported development in numerous sectors, including transport, industry, energy, sewerage, and agriculture. Most of the projects were implemented in member countries (Italy (43), Germany (20), France (20), the United Kingdom (9), and Ireland (5)), but there are also files from projects in Norway (1), the Ivory Coast (5), Cameroon (2), and Gabon (2). Nine of the dossiers include photos of the works.
Some of the more prominent projects included among these files are ‘Irish Telephones II', which supported the modernisation and extension of telecommunications in Ireland; Saipem II A / Castoro VI, which financed the construction of a semi-submersible vessel equipped to lay undersea pipelines for Italy; and Traforo Autostr Frejus I, a project that led to the construction of a transalpine tunnel between Italy and France.
About the EIB deposits at the HAEU
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. Since 2015, the EIB has transferred 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: Fishermen mending fishing nets, EIB project to improve port access in Abidjan in the Ivory Coast. Photo by Ciné Publicité Abidjan. 1972. HAEU, BEI-2379-I.2