Social Issues

Social concerns are addressed according to national, EU and international law, good practice and codes of behaviour.

Whilst they have always been taken into consideration as part of the EIB’s environmental assessment of projects, social issues are now also assessed in their own right as part of an integrated assessment.

For projects mainly located outside Europe, internal guidelines are based on internationally accepted good practices and, in developing countries, related to the Millennium Development Goals.

They focus on:

• labour standards
• occupational and community health and safety (including major communicable diseases)
• population movement (including involuntary resettlement issues)
• minority rights (including indigenous people, women and vulnerable groups)
• public consultation and participation
• cultural heritage.

In large complex projects co-financed with other International Financing Institutions (IFIs), responsibilities for appropriate social assessment is often shared and the Bank may utilise other co-investors’ existing social safeguard policy frameworks.