Report from the Commission to the Council and to the European Parliament on the borrowing and lending activities of the Community in 2008.

Abstract

The Council decisions establishing the various lending instrumentsof the European Union require the Commission to inform the Council and the European Parliament, each year, of the use of these instruments. In order to meet these information requirements, this report describes the lending operations for each of the areas concerned. In particular, this report gives a brief presentation of lending and borrowing activities under the balance-of-payment support to non-euro area Member States (BOP), and the macro-financial assistance provided by the Community to third countries (MFA), as well as guarantees associated with Community loans. In addition, it provides information on Euratom lending and borrowing activities. To complete the picture of lending activities, the respective Council decisions1 for EIB lending activities outside the Community require the Commission to inform the Council and the Parliament on an annual basis of the situation regarding European Investment Bank (EIB) financing operations (loans and loan guarantees) guaranteed by the Union budget in the pre-accession countries, the Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, the Southern Caucasus and Russia, Asia and Latin America and the Republic of South Africa.