According to the Financial Times, seven EU countries “are demanding an overhaul” of the development bank as Britain prepares to leave the bloc. 

Britain is one of the largest shareholders in the EIB, which is based in Kirchberg and owned jointly by all EU member states. London may ask for its capital to be returned when it quits the union.

“Brexit could slash its lending capacity by around €100bn,” the FT wrote:

“One diplomat said a number of countries were ‘annoyed’ that the Luxembourg-based bank had not given more consideration to managing with less capital after Brexit”.

The seven countries are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, the Netherlands and Sweden. Their position paper also calls for revamp of the EIB’s governance policies, to boost risk management and avoid potential conflicts of interest.

The FT said that the EIB declined to comment on the position paper.