European Investment Bank

The European Investment Bank is responsible for:

• Auctioning the allowances which provide the resources of the Modernisation Fund; these allowances will be auctioned in equal annual volumes from 2021 to 2030, in accordance with the Auctioning Regulation
• Confirming whether an investment is a priority or a non-priority one
• Conducting financial and technical due diligence of non-priority investments, including an assessment of the expected emission reductions
• Managing the assets of the Modernisation Fund
• Transferring the respective resources to the beneficiary Member States following the disbursement decision of the Commission, and keeping track of the use of Member State resources
• Providing the secretariat of the Investment Committee

Investments eligible under the Modernisation Fund are not required to be eligible under EIB policies (e.g. the EIB Energy Lending Policy), since the activities undertaken by the EIB in the Modernisation Fund, as mandated by the ETS Directive and Implementing Regulation, do not relate to EIB financing operations.

The selection and submission of investment proposals rests entirely with, and is the responsibility of, the Beneficiary Member States. It is possible for private and public entities to co-finance Modernisation Fund investment proposals. In this regard, the EIB can also receive requests for financing, and processes such requests as part of its normal lending activities, albeit separately from the Modernisation Fund activities of the EIB. In such cases, compliance with EIB’s rules and procedures including its lending policies will also need to apply.

The EIB’s investment assessment activities in the Modernisation Fund are ring-fenced from the standard EIB financing and technical assistance operations in order to avoid any potential conflict of interest in carrying out the activities mandated in accordance with the ETS Directive and the Implementing Regulation.