Dear Mr. Fernandes,

Thank you for your e-mail and interest in the European Investment Bank
(EIB), the long-term financing institution of the European Union.

We hereby confirm receipt of your query, which is being handled in line
with the provisions of the EIB Group Transparency Policy. We will revert
to you as soon as possible.

Many thanks for your kind understanding.
Yours sincerely,

Infodesk Team
European Investment Bank
[EIB request email]
_______________________
For more details concerning EIB procedures for handling information
requests, please refer to the EIB Group "Transparency Policy": (
[1]http://www.eib.org/infocentre/publicatio...
). If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.
___________________________________________________________

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Dear Mr Fernandes,

Thank you for your follow-up email. The European Investment Bank (EIB)
apologises for the delay in responding to your application. In line with
Articles 5.23 and 5.24 of the EIB Group Transparency Policy, we are
extending the time limit to respond from 15 to 30 working days due to the
complexity of your request, which concerns the disclosure of several
documents and information, and requires consulting with external third
parties. We will endeavour to reply to your application as soon as
possible.

We thank you in advance for your understanding and remain at your disposal
should you require any further clarifications.

Yours sincerely,
Infodesk Team
European Investment Bank
[EIB request email]
_______________________
For more details concerning EIB procedures for handling information
requests, please refer to the EIB Group "Transparency Policy": (
[1]http://www.eib.org/infocentre/publicatio...
). If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.
___________________________________________________________
From: [FOI #6155 email]
To: [email address]
Cc:
Sent: 1/4/2019 9:31:55 AM
Subject: Internal review of access to documents request - Financing
agreements on water and sanitation projec

Dear EIB Infodesk,

Dear European Investment Bank,

I am still waiting for a reply for my request made last 5th December,
concerning Financing agreements on water and sanitation projects. You will
find below the information that I am requesting.

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in
Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents which contain the
following information:

- Financing agreement and borrowing conditions for the project WASTEWATER
TREATMENT PROJECT IN GUAYAQUIL
(http://www.eib.org/en/projects/pipelines...)
- Financing agreement and borrowing conditions for the project AGUAS
ARGENTINAS (http://www.eib.org/en/projects/loan/loan...)
- Financing agreement and borrowing conditions for the project AGUAS
CORDOBESAS (http://www.eib.org/en/projects/loan/loan...)
- Financing agreement and borrowing conditions for the project WATER &
SEWERAGE MANILA WEST (PHILIPP)
(http://www.eib.org/en/projects/loan/loan...)

Looking forward to your response providing these documents.
Yours sincerely,

Gustavo Fernandes Meireles
PhD candidate at Université Paris-Saclay

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Dear Mr. Fernandes Meireles,

We refer to your messages of 05 December 2018 and 04 January 2019
addressed to the European Investment Bank (EIB) via the AsktheEU.org
website, requesting copies of financing agreements of several water and
sanitation projects in Asia and Latin America. We also refer to the EIB’s
acknowledgement of receipt of 14 December 2018 and holding message of 08
January 2019, and would like to apologise for the delay of our response.
Your request has been handled in accordance with the provisions of the EIB
Group Transparency Policy (1).

Please find attached to this message a copy of the requested Finance
Contract of the Wastewater Treatment Project in Guayaquil.

Information contained in this document covered by the exceptions for
disclosure described in the EIB Group Transparency Policy has been removed
and replaced by the symbol […]. This mainly concerns financial information
which if disclosed would undermine the protection of the commercial
interests of the EIB counterpart. This is covered by Article 5.5 of the
EIB Group Transparency policy. None of the information removed from this
document relates to the environment.

Additional information regarding this project, including the Bank’s
Environmental and Social Data Sheet (ESDS) and the project’s Environmental
and Social Impact assessment (ESIA), can be found on the Bank’s website:
[1]http://www.eib.org/en/projects/pipelines...

Regarding the projects Aguas Argentinas and Aguas Cordobesas, signed in
1995 and 1998 respectively, we would like to inform you that both loans
have been repaid, and the EIB no longer has any contractual relationship
with these projects and their promoters.

Regarding the project Water& Sewerage Manila West, we would like to inform
you that this operation was cancelled after signature, and no EIB funds
were disbursed for this project.

We would also like to inform you that general information regarding the
EIB template contractual clauses on environmental matters can also be
found on the EIB website:
[2]http://www.eib.org/en/about/documents/ei...

We hope you find this information useful and remain at your disposal
should you need any further clarifications (2).

Yours sincerely,

Infodesk Team
European Investment Bank
[EIB request email]

_______________________
(1)
[3]http://www.eib.org/infocentre/publicatio...
(2) In line with Article 5.31 of the EIB Group Transparency Policy, please
be informed that, should you consider this reply as unsatisfactory, you
have the right to make a confirmatory application or lodge a complaint
with the EIB Complaints Mechanism regarding this request.

___________________________________________________________
From: [FOI #6155 email]
To: [email address]
Cc:
Sent: 2/13/2019 9:49:45 AM
Subject: Internal review of access to documents request - Financing
agreements on water and sanitation projec

Dear EIB Infodesk,

Since your reply from January 08, 2019 I am still waiting for your answer
to my request.

I do understand that you asked for 30 working days to treat my request
but, since the 30th working day will be next Tuesday (February 19th)
please let me know if you are already able to respond to my request.

Yours sincerely,

Gustavo Fernandes Meireles

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Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for contacting the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Your request was assigned the following Reference Number [IFD000010227691]. Please retain this number for any future communication.

Please note that your request has entered a queuing system and will be treated in the shortest possible time.

Yours faithfully,
EIB Infodesk team
_______________________
For more details concerning EIB procedures for handling information requests, please refer to the EIB Group "Transparency Policy": (http://www.eib.org/infocentre/publicatio...). If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.

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Dear Sir,

We refer to your message of 20 February 2019 addressed to the European
Investment Bank (EIB) via the AsktheEU.org website, regarding your access
to documents request of 05 December 2018 and the EIB’s response of 15
February 2019.

We would first like to inform you that the EIB does not have a specific
model Finance Contract for financing operations in sectors like water and
sanitation. While some general requirements may be common to Finance
Contracts in all sectors (including the clauses on environmental and
social matters provided in our previous response) aiming to ensure the
feasibility and sustainability of the underlying projects, each Finance
Contract is adapted, on the basis of the outcome of the Bank’s due
diligence, to the specific operation concerned. Furthermore, it is to be
noted that Finance Contracts essentially depend on, inter-alia, the
financing instrument used and they are of course subject to negotiation
with borrowers.

As you may know, general information regarding EIB financing in the water
and wastewater management sector can be found on the dedicated webpage of
the EIB website:
[1]https://www.eib.org/en/projects/sectors/...,
which includes the EIB’s Water Sector Lending Orientation:
[2]https://www.eib.org/en/infocentre/public....

Notwithstanding the above clarifications on your request, in order to
better identify the type of information that you wish to obtain and to
address your information needs in the best possible way, we would
appreciate if you could further clarify the type of information from EIB
Finance Contracts, including the Finance Contract of the Wastewater
Treatment Project in Guayaquil, which you would like to obtain.

Alternatively, and in order to better assist you in your research, we
could try to arrange a telephone interview with EIB staff dealing with
water and sanitation projects in order to discuss EIB policies and its
approach to financing projects this sector.

Should you be interested in this possibility, please contact directly the
EIB Civil Society Department ([email address]) in order to discuss
some suitable dates.

Yours sincerely,

Infodesk Team
European Investment Bank
[EIB request email]
_______________________
For more details concerning EIB procedures for handling information
requests, please refer to the EIB Group "Transparency Policy": (
[3]http://www.eib.org/infocentre/publicatio...
). If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.
___________________________________________________________
From: [FOI #6155 email]
To: [email address]
Cc:
Sent: 20/02/2019 23:13:10
Subject: Internal review of access to documents request - Financing
agreements on water and sanitation projec

Dear European Investment Bank,

Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.

First of all, thank you for your attention and for your response
(partially) to my request.

I am filing the following confirmatory application with regards to my
access to documents request 'Financing agreements on water and sanitation
projects'.

As an response to my request I received February 15th one of the financing
contracts I was looking for my actual research on international
partnerships on the water and sanitation sector. It was the Finance
Contract WASTEWATER TREATMENT PROJECT IN GUAYAQUIL.

However, for my surprise, most of the text was suppressed and only the
information regarding environmental issues is available. Maybe the staff
who prepared the document thought that I was most interested in the
environmental issues related to this kind of financing agreement. This
appear to be specially clear considering these observations in the message
:

"This mainly concerns financial information which if disclosed would
undermine the protection of the commercial interests of the EIB
counterpart. This is covered by Article 5.5 of the EIB Group Transparency
policy. None of the information removed from this document relates to the
environment.

Additional information regarding this project, including the Bank’s
Environmental and Social Data Sheet (ESDS) and the project’s Environmental
and Social Impact assessment (ESIA), can be found on the Bank’s website:
[1]http://www.eib.org/en/projects/pipelines...

Since my research topic is not about environmental issues (and I did not
say that it was), but mainly obligations addressed but the bank to the
contractor and eventual conditions (bank's general conditions, policies,
etc.), the financing contract as I received does not correspond to what I
need.

I assure you that I do not need (and I have no interest) in any "financial
information which if disclosed would undermine the protection of the
commercial interests of the EIB counterpart", as it is described in
Article 5.5 of the EIB Group Transparency policy. On the other hand, I
would like to have access to more than only environmental-related clauses
of the contract.

In addition to that, if you could also indicate some model of BEI
financing contracts in sectors like water and sanitation, I would be even
more glad.

A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the
Internet at this address:
[4]https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/fina...

Yours faithfully,
Gustavo Fernandes Meireles

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Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #6155 email]

This message and all replies from European Investment Bank will be
published on the AsktheEU.org website. For more information see our
dedicated page for EU public officials at
[5]https://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/officers

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______________________________________
EIB Request Reference: IFD000010227691

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References

Visible links
1. https://www.eib.org/en/projects/sectors/...,
2. https://www.eib.org/en/infocentre/public....
3. http://www.eib.org/infocentre/publicatio...
4. https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/fina...
5. https://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/officers