EIB Impact Report 2020

How the EIB measures its impact
This report is aimed primarily at readers who already have a certain familiarity with 
the Bank. It highlights the additionality of the Bank’s involvement in the projects it 
finances.
As the European Union’s bank, the EIB is charged with implementing public policy. In that role, the 
Bank ensures that all operations meet its requirements of additionality and impact, and are eligible
for its support. 
What is additionality? Additionality refers to how the Bank’s intervention can enable or strengthen a 
project — typically a project that could also benefit public welfare — in a way that the market alone 
would not achieve. When markets fail to function efficiently, they often do not generate socially 
desirable outcomes. Market failures can inhibit private sector investors from delivering the optimal 
level, scope and/or quality of investment for societies, providing room for public banks, such as the 
European Investment Bank (EIB), to make a difference. If the market failure did not exist, the private 
sector would likely have made the needed investment. 
The Bank’s eligibility rules ensure that activities are in line with the EIB statutes and EU policy 
objectives. All projects financed by the Bank must contribute to the EIB’s goals in its main spheres of 
activity: sustainable cities and regions; sustainable energy and natural resources; innovation, digital 
and human capital; small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-cap finance; climate action 
and environmental sustainability; and economic and social cohesion.

Until the end of 2020, the EIB used its Three Pillar Assessment (3PA) to measure additionality 
and impact for its EU projects, while projects outside the European Union were assessed 
using the Results Measurement framework (ReM). Both methodologies rated projects 
according to criteria that fell under three main pillars: the furthering of EU policy objectives; 
project quality and soundness; and the EIB’s contribution to the project. The charts below 
illustrate the 2020 performance of the EIB’s different products under each pillar.

EIB Impact Report 2020