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Deciphering the European Investment Bank: History, Politics and Economics examines the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union's financial institution and the largest lender and borrower among the International Financial Institutions. Since its establishment in 1958, the EIB has developed without becoming front-page news and has remained highly invisible. By putting together 14 chapters that analyze topical and meaningful moments and aspects of the bank, this edited book offers the first comprehensive analysis of its origins and its evolution in terms of its mandate, governance, structures, policy activity, and performance. Written by acknowledged experts from various disciplines, the chapters weave together history, economics, law, and political science to provide a multidisciplinary examination and capture the complexity of the EIB. The book is a timely initiative for understanding the EIB, whose role has been ever increasing for contributing to the recent global economic challenges, including the economic and financial crisis, climate change, and COVID-19 pandemic. The chapters are written at a level which will be comprehensible to undergraduates in economics, history, and international political economy. It will also be a valuable source of reference for academics, policy makers, bankers, and other practitioners interested in regional development banks and their role in the global economy.

In November 2019, the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced its 'metamorphosis' into a 'Climate Bank.' Associated with the EU's Green Deal, presented a month later, the EIB claimed to be the first international climate bank and a front runner in the EU's priority climate agenda. The EIB is mandated through the treaties to support EU policymakers. However, with its 'makeover,' the EIB also announced the launch of a new climate strategy and energy lending policy, ending fossil fuel financing after 2021. It is thus valuable to examine the question of whether the EIB has developed into a policymaker, and if so, how this can be best understood. In exploring this question, this article follows a principal-agent approach, attempting to discern the rational interests behind organisational rhetoric and posits that the EIB's claimed transformation hints at a type of policymaking activism, exploiting a policy window to serve the EIB's rational interests in a strained political and market contest. This represents a paradigm shift in the EIB's institutional behaviour and rhetoric within the EU governance constellation and is, in fact, in this sense a 'quantum leap' as suggested by the EIB. However, it remains to be seen if the bank's metrics will prove a bold departure from their current activity or simply another adaptation to a policy field of intense interest to the EU, as has occurred on several occasions in the past.

In November 2019, the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced its 'metamorphosis' into a 'Climate Bank.' Associated with the EU's Green Deal, presented a month later, the EIB claimed to be the first international climate bank and a front runner in the EU's priority climate agenda. The EIB is mandated through the treaties to support EU policymakers. However, with its 'makeover,' the EIB also announced the launch of a new climate strategy and energy lending policy, ending fossil fuel financing after 2021. It is thus valuable to examine the question of whether the EIB has developed into a policymaker, and if so, how this can be best understood. In exploring this question, this article follows a principal-agent approach, attempting to discern the rational interests behind organisational rhetoric and posits that the EIB's claimed transformation hints at a type of policymaking activism, exploiting a policy window to serve the EIB's rational interests in a strained political and market contest. This represents a paradigm shift in the EIB's institutional behaviour and rhetoric within the EU governance constellation and is, in fact, in this sense a 'quantum leap' as suggested by the EIB. However, it remains to be seen if the bank's metrics will prove a bold departure from their current activity or simply another adaptation to a policy field of intense interest to the EU, as has occurred on several occasions in the past.

Abstract
The European Investment Bank (EIB), the primary financial arm of the European Union (EU) has become of central interest in the last ten years. The EIB has been increasingly solicited by the EU to bolster the European economy during the global crisis and support its recovery thereafter. Calls have recently been voiced for the EIB to contribute to the European Green Deal and the post-pandemic economic stimulus. This paper studies the EIB's role in the European economy through its business model in the period from 2009–2019. The paper's prime objective is to investigate what enabled the EIB to act in a countercyclical mode and how the EIB met the new economy needs in this turbulent environment.

During the two decades from 1990 to 2010, the Balkans was the only European region to suffer a cruel reversal. On the one hand, it welcomed the transition to a free economy, despite the difficulties it had to overcome. On the other hand, it experienced the merciless reality of war, when it was convulsed by successive waves of various armed confrontations extending over most of its territory. These left severe and far-reaching post-conflict symptoms: a shattered economic and social base; unemployment and poverty bordering on humanitarian crisis; morale broken, infrastructure in ruins. Yet at the same time this fragmented, conflict-ridden region became the theatre of international collaboration of unprecedented quality and scale. With more than 22 donor/sponsor countries and investors, as well as international and multilateral organisations, the total flow of official development assistance and foreign direct investment in the region is estimated at more than 150 billion euro during the period in question. The region is therefore a model of reorganisation, restructuring and economic development. As an integral part of this broader geopolitical and economic scene, Greece is participating economically, in common with other 'players', in the 'rebirth' and integration of the region into the international community, both directly, by providing official development assistance (ODA) under the Hellenic Plan for the Economic Reconstruction of the Balkans (HPERB), and indirectly, by promoting Greece's foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region in a variety of ways, mainly through subsidies. Thus, Greece evolved from a long-term 'net importer' of investments into an 'exporter' focused on the Balkans, where it ranked among the top sources of ODA and FDI. This study approaches the subject holistically, examining the dual nature of Greece's involvement and analysing the broader economic and geopolitical setting. The dual economic involvement of the Greek State in the Balkans is also examined from a dual perspective within the scope of this doctoral thesis, both from a theoretical and from an empirical point of view, using business strategy models such as PEST, SWOT, VRIO, as well as Porter models of 'competitive forces', and the 'value chain'. This thesis examines the reasons why Greece's involvement was inevitable; investigates the compatibility between Greece's involvement and the country's other commitments within the EU; studies the advisability and usefulness of the endeavour; compares Greece with other countries as a provider of ODA and FDI; analyses and evaluates the HPERB; assesses the role of the Greek State and any encouragement and guidance of FDI through Greek subsidies; and scrutinises the characteristics of Greek FDI, in terms of competitiveness and the links with the parent companies in Greece. This subject is novel in an academic context, because a survey of the bibliography shows that this combined dual line of inquiry has not attracted scientific attention, as the existing studies focus on one or other of the two aspects, not both together. Furthermore, this paper is original in terms of method, firstly because it examines the subject from a new viewpoint, that of business strategy, and secondly because it uses the relevant models in new ways, with new applications. The subject, through the study of what has been achieved, remains 'topical' and retains its significance, as guidance to future policy makers and/or investors, especially during the current unfavourable economic situation in Greece, because, apart from any conclusions regarding the impact of Greek economic involvement in the Balkans, foreign markets represent a way out of the Greek recession.

Deciphering the European Investment Bank: History, Politics and Economics examines the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union's financial institution and the largest lender and borrower among the International Financial Institutions. Since its establishment in 1958, the EIB has developed without becoming front-page news and has remained highly invisible. By putting together 14 chapters that analyze topical and meaningful moments and aspects of the bank, this edited book offers the first comprehensive analysis of its origins and its evolution in terms of its mandate, governance, structures, policy activity, and performance. Written by acknowledged experts from various disciplines, the chapters weave together history, economics, law, and political science to provide a multidisciplinary examination and capture the complexity of the EIB. The book is a timely initiative for understanding the EIB, whose role has been ever increasing for contributing to the recent global economic challenges, including the economic and financial crisis, climate change, and COVID-19 pandemic. The chapters are written at a level which will be comprehensible to undergraduates in economics, history, and international political economy. It will also be a valuable source of reference for academics, policy makers, bankers, and other practitioners interested in regional development banks and their role in the global economy.