The project corresponds to the loan application submitted by the borrower and whose type, duration and amount must be approved by the Administrative Council. But before this, the project must first be appraised in accordance with the Bank's procedures.

This is the first stage in the project cycle. Once approved by the Government of the country concerned, the project presentation file, in French or in English, is sent simultaneously to:
	the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, who gives an opinion as to the admissibility of the project from the political and social points of view;
	the Governor of the CEB who, after examining the project, gives his opinion on its technical and financial aspects.
At the end of this appraisal phase, the Governor makes a recommendation and refers the project to the Administrative Council for approval and authorisation for financing.
The eligibility criteria for projects and the procedures for processing loan applications are set out in the Policy for loan and project financing (2006). This resolution constitutes the basic reference document for all the activities relating to the examination, approval, financing and monitoring of the projects presented to the Bank.     Project amounts vary according to the total cost of the anticipated investment. As a general rule, the CEB's participation in the financing of projects may not exceed 50% of the total investment made by the borrower or the beneficiary. The balance is financed by resources from other para-state bodies usually responsible for development programmes or by banks or self-financing.     The loan applications are presented by the member states, whether they come from the member state itself or from a legal entity approved by it. The project is based on a presentation file (or feasibility report): this describes the project's socio-economic impact as well as its technical aspects and gives details of the cost of the projected investment, the financing plan, the share of financing requested of the Bank, the procedures envisaged for monitoring the project and the guarantees provided.     The CEB's various departments can assist the applicant body in preparing the file, and in particular with: -  formulating the social needs and the purpose of the project; -   describing the elements to be included in the request for financing; -  formally drafting the file to be presented.

	For an Individual Project (IP) or a Sector-based project (SP), the file must include the following points:
	1 -	A description of the borrower
		The file must first include a short description of the borrower. If the borrower is a financial institution, the file must provide details of the general functioning of the institution: its legal status, its risk management policy, its organisation, its internal decision-making structure, the departments in charge of the evaluation and monitoring of operations, as well as a short report on the main elements of its financial performance over the last five years and over the current year.
	2 -	A description of the project: its social purpose and its objectives
		The file must contain a general description of the project.
		Intended social purpose:
		-  description of the situation and of the problem which requires action (summary of the main socio-economic indicators of the country, information on the sector concerned including, in particular, an outline of the major problems encountered at national level, the policies implemented by the government, the legal context of the sector in question); -  description of the population group targeted by the project; -  anticipated social impact; -  time limits required in order to verify the anticipated impact.
		Objectives:
		-  description and scope of the project (the different phases and their content); -  quantified components of the project (for example, number of families concerned by the project).
	3 -	Location
		-  regional socio-economic context of the sector (regional development strategies), municipalities and sites concerned; -  specific local characteristics, possibly for each target objective; -  reasons for the choice of place; -  map situating the site, the region.
	4 -	Schedule
		-  schedule for the completion of the works, if necessary by major stages, giving details of the anticipated starting and completion dates.
	5 -	Cost
		-  estimated total cost of the project and of its component parts, per major budget heads, in the national currency; -  the particular head to which the CEB financing is to be allocated, where applicable; -  average unit costs (per m² for housing, per hospital bed, etc.).
	6 -	Financing
		-  financing plan (CEB and other sources of financing); -  projected annual schedule for disbursements (CEB and other sources of financing); -  amount in currency and duration of the loan requested of the CEB.
	7 -	Guarantee
		-  if the guarantor is not the member state, presentation of the economic, financial and other elements needed to assess the quality of the guarantor.
	For a Multi-project programme (MP), a number of additional elements must be included in the file:
	-  identification of the individual projects to be financed within the framework of the SP or MP; -  schedule of anticipated disbursements to the final beneficiaries; -  conditions for the onlending of the loans; -  means and methods used by the borrower to evaluate the individual projects.