- EIB Group financing in Lithuania jumps 29% in 2025 with security and defence in spotlight.
- Funding includes €300 million loan for military upgrades and €100 million credit for biggest Baltic onshore wind farm.
- Lithuanian water networks and business financing also focus of EIB Group support last year.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group’s financing in Lithuania rose 29% to €577 million last year on the back of stepped-up support for security and defence in the country. The increase in 2025 also helped expand renewable energy and upgrade water networks in Lithuania.
The EIB Group’s activity in Lithuania last year represented 0.7% of its gross domestic product (GDP) and helped mobilise €1.4 billion in total investments – equivalent to 1.7% of GDP. The operations supported around 1,500 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and Mid-Caps and helped sustain more than 17,000 jobs across the country.
Of the total last year, €452 million came from the EIB and €126 million were from the European Investment Fund (EIF), which focuses on SMEs in Europe. The EIB Group’s financing in Lithuania increased from €449 million in 2024.
Key projects in 2025 included a €300 million EIB loan to the Lithuanian government for defence investments covering – among other things – harbour boats, medical equipment and training infrastructure. The EIB also lent €100 million to Ignitis Group for its Kelmė onshore wind farm, which is the largest project of its kind in the Baltics with capacity to power 250,000 Lithuanian households, and €50 million to Vilniaus vandenys for upgrades of water and wastewater systems in the capital region.
“Lithuania is delivering the kind of strategic investments Europe needs – from defence readiness to renewable power,” said EIB Vice‑President Karl Nehammer. “We are and will remain a committed partner as the country strengthens its resilience and long‑term growth, ensuring that essential infrastructure and security‑related projects move forward without delay.”
EIB Group support for defence investments in Lithuania will remain in the spotlight. The EIB is set to lend the Lithuanian government €540 million to build a military base in Rūdninkai near the Belarusian border – a key project to improve readiness, logistics and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) interoperability.
The EIB is also advising the Lithuanian government on the Rūdninkai base investment, which involves public-private partnership (PPP) agreements. The aim is to ensure that the PPP accords meet market standards.
For its part in 2025, the EIF broadened access to finance for SMEs in Lithuania through several intermediaries.
It expanded green lending via a new guarantee with RATO Credit Union and backed the Sound Senior Private Debt Fund under a programme by Lithuanian development bank ILTE to deepen capital markets. The EIF also increased guarantees for Mano Bankas, SME Finance and Noviti, enabling additional lending to SMEs and micro-enterprises across the country.
Background information
About EIB Group
The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. The EIB Group also includes the European Investment Fund (EIF), boosting Europe’s competitiveness and security. Built around eight core priorities, the EIB finances investments that contribute to EU policy objectives by bolstering climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, cohesion, agriculture and the bioeconomy, social infrastructure, the capital markets union and a stronger Europe in a more peaceful and prosperous world.
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