The European Investment Bank (EIB) aims to increase its financing target from €89 billion to €95 billion between 2024 and 2025, mainly in support of climate action.
“We are the European Union’s climate bank”, since 60% of our operations aim to support climate action and environmental sustainability, declared EIB President Nadia Calviño on Thursday 30 January at the presentation of the annual results of the financial institution she has been chairing for the past year.
The EIB also reports the mobilisation of more than €100 billion for projects to build and renovate energy infrastructure (renewable energies, net-zero technologies, energy efficiency and storage).
Asked about the ‘simplification shock’ in environmental reporting that the European Commission intends to carry out (see EUROPE 13568/1), Ms Calviño felt there was a need “to simplify and reduce red tape, including in green reporting”, and to “recalibrate to make the rules fit-for-purpose for investments inside and outside the EU, while making sure they preserve the ‘European Green Deal’ objectives”. She mentioned specific proposals from multilateral development banks in this regard.
Security and defence. The former Spanish minister also spoke of the EIB’s intention to double financing for security and defence, from €1 billion to €2 billion between 2024 and 2025.
Asked about the possibility of going further, she said that the EU bank was respecting its mandate. “We are not a defence ministry. We are a bank”, she stressed.
In spring 2024, the EU Member States extended the definition of dual-use goods and infrastructure eligible for EIB Group financing (see EUROPE 13407/7). Fourteen Member States are asking the EIB to go further, not ruling out possible financing of military equipment (see EUROPE 13373/15).
Ms Calviño pointed out that the security and defence sector is the only one for which the financial institution has initiated road shows in some fifteen countries in order to identify any “market gaps“ and assess the opportunity to expand its mandate in this area.
The EIB is also planning to extend its European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI), launched in February 2023 to support the growth of European unicorns. By taking stakes in innovative start-ups worth €8 billion in 2024, the bank is engaging in “riskier activities”, Ms Calviño affirmed.
Further information: https://aeur.eu/f/fak (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)