Brussels, 29/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and the president of the European Investment Bank, Philippe Maystadt, met in Brussels on Friday to discuss issues on the agenda at the June European Council and examine implementation of the action by the European Investment Bank upon request of the December 2008 European Council to encourage recovery in the European economy. The two politicians praised “excellent cooperation between the European Commission and the EIB”. Maystadt said the EIB had more than kept its promises.
Talking about cooperation between the European Commission and the EIB, the president of the Commission said he had discussed with Philippe Maystadt the option of setting up a new microcredit fund and that some €100 million would be earmarked in cooperation with the EIB. He said the idea was to provide funding for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are being squeezed by the credit crunch. He hoped this would provide a lever effect and enable SMEs to access private sector funding. At the next meeting of the European Investment Bank's governing council (9 June 2009), Barroso said the loans for SMEs would rise from €6 billion to €7 billion in total and in the future would rise to between €7.5 bn and €10 billion a year. The president of the Commission said that loans to the transport industry, energy and cohesion were ways of getting the economy out of crisis, as was co-funding for carbon capture and storage, an area where, he said, Philippe Maystadt had pledged to get involved.
The EIB president said the bank had met its promises in terms of the European Recovery Programme. At the December 2008 European Council, the EIB pledged to increase its lending in the EU from €45 billion to €60 billion but the EIB would actually increase its lending to €70 billion in 2009. Maystadt said the EIB was working faster than expected and had paid out 40% more in the first months of 2009 than in the same period of 2008, which demonstrated the effectiveness of the measures taken to simplify lending procedures. Philippe Maystadt said the EIB was taking more risks than in the past by lending to companies which did not fully meet its normal criteria. On aid for the car industry, Maystadt said the EIB was doing what had been agreed. He said by the end of July 2009, the car industry would have had €7 billion in loans and in the second half of 2009, the EIB would focus its attention on component manufacturers. (O.L./transl.fl)