Luxembourg, Luxemburg – Ms Eva SREJBER has been appointed Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) with effect from 1 July 2007. On the EIB’s Management Committee, her responsibilities include financing operations in Finland, Sweden, Estonia Latvia, Lithuania, the eastern EU neighbouring countries including Russia and the EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). Ms Srejber will also supervise the Bank’s activities in support of a competitive and innovative European economy (i2i facility), as well as the ex-post evaluations of EIB activity. Before arriving at the EIB, Ms Srejber pursued a banking career in Sweden and with international financing institutions, most recently as First Vice Chairman of the Executive Board and First Deputy Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank.

She previously held the position of Deputy CEO and Member of the Management Committee at the FöreningsSparbanken (Swedbank) (1998) with responsibility, among other things, for EU/EMU issues.

Ms Srejber was also Alternate Executive Director, then Executive Director, for the Nordic-Baltic Constituency at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (1994-1997).

In addition, she served as a Board member of the National Private Insurance Supervisory Authority, Statistics Sweden, and on the National Board for Spent Nuclear Fuel (1987-1991).

Since 1981, Ms Srejber has participated in various committees within the sphere of Nordic cooperation, the OECD, the BIS, the IMF, and the European Union, including the European Central Bank (ECB). She also assumed responsibilities in bilateral cooperation with transition and developing country central banks.

Ms Srejber holds a degree in economics (1975); she is Swedish and is fluent in English, French and German.

Background

The Management Committee is the Bank’s full-time executive body. Under the authority of the President, Mr Philippe Maystadt, it collectively oversees the day-to-day running of the EIB as well as preparing and ensuring the implementation of the Board of Directors’ decisions, notably regarding borrowing and lending operations. The members of the Management Committee (composed of the EIB’s President and eight Vice-Presidents) are responsible solely to the Bank. They are appointed by the Board of Governors – consisting of Ministers (generally Finance Ministers) from each EU Member State – for a renewable period of up to six years, on a proposal from the Board of Directors, from among candidates put forward by the Member State concerned. Sweden shares on a rotation basis a place on the Management Committee with a four-year term, with Austria, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Latvia and Lithuania, which form a shareholder constituency. The EIB’s Management Committee is based in Luxembourg.

Ms Srejber succeeds Mr Sauli Niinistö on the Management Committee. A Deputy Prime Minister of Finland from 1995 until 2001, Mr Niinistö, was a member of the Committee with the same responsibilities from September 2003 to 2007, before returning to his political career in Finland. He is presently Speaker of the Finnish Parliament.

The European Investment Bank Group, the banking group promoting European objectives, finances capital investment aimed at modernising the economies of the Member States and of the countries close to the Union.

In 2006, the European Investment Bank lent a total of EUR 45.8 bn for projects promoting the European Union’s policy objectives. Finance for the then EU-25 Member States represented 87% of its activities and amounted to EUR 39.8 bn. To fund its activities, the EIB raised an aggregate amount of EUR 48 bn on the international capital markets through 303 bond issues in 24 currencies. Owned by the Member States, the EIB (AAA issuer) is the largest Supranational issuer.

This was the first full year in which the new strategy decided by the EIB’s Governors in June 2005 was implemented: a qualitative strategy based on investment and financial innovation. This strategy consists of:

strengthening the leverage of the EIB’s operations;

concentrating its financing within the Union on six European priorities;

fostering economic convergence between the Union and its partner countries.