A.43 Authorities should ascertain if the EIB has an interest in the project while recognising that the EIB will typically not engage in a discussion of terms until the preferred bidder has been selected. Authorities should be aware that the EIB operates a two-stage approval process. The first stage is to ensure that the project complies with its lending policies and to determine if it falls into any special lending category. This can be done early in the dialogue phase. The second stage is analogous to the credit approval process followed by commercial banks and will follow a similar timetable.