President Calviño at the European Research and Innovation Days

Good afternoon.

It is a great pleasure to be here today to introduce this session, which has to do with one of the core issues and core challenges of the European Union right now, which is tech sovereignty. It is a great pleasure to come and talk to you, particularly a great pleasure for me for two or three reasons. First of all, because we're going to be talking about success. The European Innovation Council, the European Research Council is undoubtedly one of the success stories of the European Union, and it is a success story of joint cooperation between the European Commission and so many, many partners, including the European Investment Bank. That is the second reason why I am so proud and so happy to join you today, representing the European Investment Bank, and that is that you will be discussing one of the top priorities for the Bank, going forward: How to ensure that the European Union is at the vanguard of new technologies? How to make sure that we make the twin green and digital transitions – which are ongoing – a European success?

Tech sovereignty is undoubtedly at the heart of the challenges that we have ahead, but also the opportunities to indeed make sure that we make the most of the ongoing technological transition. It is vital for Europe's future, and it has to do with economic security. We have discovered in the last years that it is not only about being at the forefront, at the vanguard of know-how. It is also about having the industrial capabilities to develop the value chain and ensure that European consumers can have access to these value chains under the best possible conditions. And so, this means not only research, not only innovation, it also means technological capabilities, net-zero technologies and access to critical raw materials. These are issues that some years ago we took for granted. We would never have thought that we needed to have a European strategy and European policies to ensure that we can deliver for the future of Europe.

Digitalization and technological innovation are also vital to achieving our climate goals. The European Investment Bank has consolidated its position as the EU’s climate bank, so you can understand how important it is to ensure that all these technologies enable us to continue to drive the green transition. It isn't just enough, as I said a moment ago, to have excellent ideas. We must land them. We must have the financial instruments to support them.

There will be a lot of discussion today about grants. There will be a lot of discussion about loans. Let me mention just another of the instruments that we have developed, particularly the European Investment Fund, which is our subsidiary specialising in supporting SMEs and scale-ups, which is venture capital. Since the year 2000, the European Investment Bank Group has invested over €270 billion in innovation, throughout the whole value chain from research, fundamental research, clean tech, bio- and med-tech, etcetera. And the European Investment Fund has consolidated its position as the largest venture capital investor in Europe, supporting almost half of Europe's unicorns that have emerged in the past 15 years.

The European Investment Bank Group is uniquely positioned to nurture excellence in European innovation and to help innovative companies grow and deploy their full potential. By joining our partnership with the European Commission and our technical expertise in advisory services, we can really make things happen on the ground. Just to mention a couple of examples: last year, we invested in a Polish company developing a revolutionary diagnostic to predict cancer, in a German company using artificial intelligence to streamline medical documentation, and a Spanish company that makes solar-powered drones. So there's so many possibilities and so many interesting developments that we can fund through our partnership.

Let me close with a brief mention of the European Innovation Council, which is undoubtedly one of our top priorities also going forward. We are responsible, as you probably know, for the investment activity of the European Innovation Council Fund, the venture arm of the European Innovation Council. This fund invests directly in deep tech startups that have market-creating potential but carry a high risk for public and private investors. So, in the first two months of this year alone, we have already provided equity to some of the most cutting-edge disruptive sectors. I'm talking about a French company developing quantum processors whose CEO I think is going to participate in the event today, a Spanish quantum computing software firm, and a Dutch industrial robotics company. Just to mention a few of the investments we have participated in in the first two months of the year.

Scaling up promising European tech champions has led to the creation of the European Tech Champions Initiative. We launched it with contributions from different member states, and it has already invested €1 billion, mobilised many more investments, and we need to expand and scale up also this initiative, which is a success that can help make sure that European startups remain European when they get to the growth phase of their business cycle. I wanted to emphasise all these elements because, at this point in time, with so many geopolitical challenges, and when we have so many difficulties and so many changes around us, I think that there is one key message that we should not forget. And this is, we can really base our actions on success stories of the positive experience of working together in the European Union that has brought us many decades of prosperity, growth, and a better system and a better society in Europe and also throughout the world. I think that should let us feel quite self-assured when looking to the future and try to replicate what works, build on what works when we are designing the Europe of the future.

Let me close on this positive note, and I wish you all the best for the upcoming discussions. Thank you very much.