Workshop | How to Make Pan-European Borrowers Democratically Accountable

Date and time: Thursday 25 January 2024, 14:00-18:00 CET

Location: Mundo Matongé Building (Conference room), Rue d’Edimbourg, 26, 1050 Brussels, Belgium

Please register here to participate.

From financing the European Green Deal to assistance for Ukraine, institutions with the authority to raise funds on financial markets to provide grants, loans and guarantees to public and private actors are playing an increasingly prominent role in the European Union's response to a variety of economic, political and societal challenges. With this increased role comes a greater need for integrating a broad range of public stakeholders, including parliaments and civil society, into the decision making process. Democratic accountability is crucial to make sure the actors and projects receiving public money prioritise environmental and social policy objectives. The European Parliament, national parliaments and civil society are in urgent need of more robust mechanisms for holding these institutions to account.

The aim of this workshop is to exchange knowledge and good practice about how the democratic accountability of the European Investment Bank, the European Commission and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development can be strengthened to ensure that these pan-European borrowers fulfil their public missions and objectives and do no harm.

This workshop is organized by Counter Balance and Banking on Europe.