In 2018, France remained a major country for European Investment Bank Group activity, with total lending of EUR 7.2bn via 98 operations. This amount was broken down as follows: EUR 6.1bn from the EIB and EUR 1.1bn from its subsidiary, the European Investment Fund.
Some 42% of total investment supported innovation: EUR 2.5bn (EUR 1bn more than in 2017), and more than half of all operations were financed under the Juncker Plan. Nearly 75% of loans under this programme were granted to new customers and two-thirds featured a climate component.
Meanwhile, the EIF supported 46 000 SMEs and mid-caps in France employing 415 000 people.
In total, since 2015, the year when the Juncker Plan was launched, EIB investments have helped unlock over EUR 60bn in support of projects by 130 French counterparties.