mr president what worries me most is the suggestion that the european investment bank eib has a significant role to play in solving the financial crisis that it can somehow act as the europe-wide body to provide stimulus where member states have singularly failed to coordinate their own stimuli
the danger is that if it expands its activities too far into supporting commercial banks and governments as has been suggested then its enviable high credit rating may be downgraded like some of our governments
the eib has a leverage of about thirty-five times and its shareholders are member state governments
it would be a serious issue if it were to go bust like some of our commercial banks
the report even encourages the eib and the commission to increase lending by experimenting with new innovative financial instruments
i thought the world had seen enough of clever financial tricks
