• EIB and EIF provide EUR 8.5 billion worth of financing
  • EIB Group operations under Investment Plan for Europe also well under way

The EIB Group, consisting of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and European Investment Fund (EIF), grew its business in Germany substantially in 2016. It provided finance totalling EUR 8.5 billion for projects in the 16 federal states, up 16% on last year. Nearly half – EUR 4.1 billion – targeted innovation, especially R&D projects in industry. EUR 1.8 billion was pumped into infrastructure projects and small businesses were financed to the tune of EUR 1.2 billion. Overall this is triggering EUR 32 billion worth of investment.

At the annual press conference in Frankfurt/Main, the EIB Vice-President responsible for operations in Germany, Ambroise Fayolle, stressed that “the EU bank has made available more than EUR 4 billion for research and development projects. Technological excellence and innovation are of the utmost importance to Germany if it is to remain globally competitive and maintain its leading position. In this sense, long-term loans with favourable interest rates from the EU bank represent genuine value added. They safeguard jobs and create growth.

Mr Fayolle also pointed to the EIB Group’s powerful role in strengthening climate action: “Last year, loans in Germany worth EUR 2.2 billion were aimed at promoting renewable energies and improving energy efficiency. That represents an important contribution to the energy transition and environmental protection.”  The Vice-President went on to stress that the EU bank was active in all the German federal states, but especially in the South-West and East, and that it was continuing to work closely and constructively together with public and private sector banks in Germany. “Around a quarter of all our financing operations are carried out with the help of partner institutions”, said the French Vice-President.

Specifically, the EIB provided loans totalling EUR 7.5 billion in Germany in 2016, leveraging EUR 28 billion worth of investment. Finance provided by the EIF amounted to EUR 951 million in 30 transactions, mobilising total investment of EUR 4 billion.

According to the Vice-President, EIB Group operations in Germany under the Investment Plan for Europe (frequently called the Juncker Plan) are also well under way. By the end of 2016, EUR 3.1 billion worth of loans secured by guarantees from the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) had been launched, triggering EUR 15.3 billion of investment. Mr Fayolle stressed that “under the Juncker Plan we are deploying tailor-made financial instruments in areas where they are urgently needed to get investment off the ground and where the market alone cannot deliver. We are attracting private money to projects; we are not in the business of crowding out.”

The Vice-President made clear in Frankfurt that he expected the EIB Group to maintain its strong presence in Germany in the year ahead: “I am confident that we will again be supporting a raft of good investments in 2017 – and this holds for both our traditional business and financing under the Juncker Plan.”