The European Union's investment bank — the world’s largest multilateral borrower and lender — has a woman problem.

Already under investigation for gender discrimination, the European Investment Bank (EIB) got a rebuke last month from the EU’s General Court for blocking the promotion of a female employee, highlighting the frustration among women working there.

While the General Court's ruling in July focused on flaws in the employee performance review system and was not a discrimination case per se, it was one of numerous complaints by female employees in recent years about the lack of gender diversity and career advancement for women and a generally misogynistic culture at the bank, which is co-owned by the EU's 28 member countries.

Senior managers are almost entirely male, giving the impression to female employees who spoke to POLITICO that there is a thick glass ceiling between them and the top jobs. The lack of senior posts for women — a problem that the EIB's leadership acknowledges — is particularly glaring within the institutions of the EU, given the bloc’s public push for equality and diversity.

Although it is based in Luxembourg rather than Brussels, the bank plays a central role in the European Commission's ambitions to boost the EU economy in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, financing private and public-sector projects that include €138 billion through the “Juncker Plan” — the Commission's signature investment program.

Whatever the reason for the EIB's lack of female representation at the top, it has prompted criticism from both inside and outside the organization.

“It is a bank that will relaunch Europe in the years to come. But how can it do that without any women at its top?” asked one female bank employee. Like five other women at the bank who spoke to POLITICO, she requested anonymity for fear of retribution in the workplace.

Going against the trend

The bank employs about 2,900 people, and women make up about half of the EIB administration, according to internal data. But just one in four senior managers and 28 percent of middle managers are women. On the EIB’s board of directors, which has one appointee from each of the 28 EU member countries and one from the Commission, eight seats are occupied by women (there is currently one vacancy), but there is not a single woman on the management committee, the EIB's senior executive body.

This makes the EIB worse off in comparison with the male-dominated European Central Bank in Frankfurt, which has two women on its 25-member governing council, its principal decision-making body.

The state of affairs goes against the trend in the EU, where the main institutions have set a goal of ensuring women are well-represented in senior- and middle-management positions — starting at the top, where nine of the 28 European commissioners are women.

Werner Hoyer, the EIB's German president, acknowledges there is a problem and insists he is committed to promoting more women, as well as more projects run by women.

While it is the national capitals that nominate the EIB vice presidents who sit on the management committee, Hoyer said that since he took over in 2012, the bank had made some progress "for example, in the promotion rates between male and female staff."

But he told POLITICO: “I know this progress is not nearly enough.”

'Because she's a woman'

According to employees who spoke to POLITICO, over the last two years there have been letters written in protest and calls to diversify management ranks.

Several female employees said the problem of gender imbalance, which they say predates Hoyer's arrival, has worsened since he took over in 2012. They pointed to his appointment of German men to key leadership positions — Klaus Trömel as secretary-general and Gerhard Hutz as director general and chief compliance officer. Previously, they said, women had been present on the management committee, which a decade ago included Swedish banker Eva Srejber and Marta Gajęcka, from Poland's finance ministry.

These employees described a paternalistic work environment with cases of women being "discouraged to apply for jobs at the EIB because they have family issues," or even more overt sexism ranging from "remarks on the physical appearance of female interns to people saying about a woman who has just been appointed manager, ‘she’s been appointed because she’s a woman.'”

But another female employee described the allegations of discrimination as “a lie.” It was, she said, a “generational issue” across the banking world in Europe, “where historically, women are more represented at support level than at executive level.”

Still, she acknowledged the EIB could do better. “At a time of recruitment, we should recruit 50 percent women, and 50 percent men,” though she suggested that the stressful working environment at the EIB may not be suitable to “women who put their family first.”

Whatever the reason for the EIB's lack of female representation at the top, it has prompted criticism from both inside and outside the organization.

In 2015, the European Parliament criticized the “lack of diversity in the management committee, board of governors and board of directors of the EIB, in particular with regard to gender equality,” and called on the bank to “enhance gender representation in its senior positions.”

The same year, more than 300 employees signed a letter to Hoyer calling the lack of gender diversity at the EIB a “worrying and persistent trend.” The letter said changes were needed at a time when the EIB was undertaking a major recruitment drive, internal reorganization “and our external visibility is increasing daily.”

“This is not just about putting the principle of equal opportunity into practice, but it is also about improving the performance of an institution” — Werner Hoyer, EIB's president

“We would like to call on you to personally champion the development and implementation of a diversity strategy, with a strong gender dimension,” the letter added.

Hoyer’s alleged lack of action has upset many female staffers, several employees said. "The president met with some of the protesters, but nobody took any concrete action," one employee said. "I haven't seen any will to change things."

Mandatory training

In July's court ruling, judges said the EIB was wrong to refuse the promotion of Nathalie Dessi, who had worked there since 2002, despite a recommendation by her supervisor. They annulled the EIB's decision and ordered the bank to pay her legal fees in the case, which she brought based on the bank’s internal rules of promotion, rather than as a discrimination claim. The EIB said Dessi didn’t meet the bank’s internal criteria for promotion — while the court considered that the EIB had “wrongly interpreted” its own rules.

"Ms. Dessi won her case, and we accept the finding of the court," said Matteo Maggiore, the EIB's communications director. Dessi could not be reached for comment.

Another investigation launched in March does concern “alleged gender discrimination." The unidentified plaintiff first took the matter up with the EIB but failed to get a response and escalated it to the European Ombudsman, according to the Ombudsman's office, where an official said: “The EIB has not yet taken a position on these allegations.”

Maggiore said the EIB wouldn't comment "on current cases with the Ombudsman," but the bank "is committed to improving gender balance."

Hoyer promised that gender equality and diversity will be a "priority" for his second term, which began this year. "This is not just about putting the principle of equal opportunity into practice, but it is also about improving the performance of an institution," he said.

Later this year, the EIB will introduce a new "diversity and inclusion strategy," he said. It has also launched a mandatory training course for all managers on gender and diversity in recruitment and promotion practice.

"I will continue to encourage the bank's members and governors to appoint qualified women as vice presidents" who will sit on the EIB's management committee, the president said.