Dear Jutta, Excellences, Ladies and gentlemen,
I am delighted to be part of this important discussion this morning.
These are truly exceptional times. I would love nothing more than to be with you in Charlemagne today. I do hope to see you soon in person again, either in Brussels or in your delegations around the world.
Before the pandemic hit, we engaged in an extended period of discussion on how the EU can best develop its strategic autonomy, while meeting its key policy commitments, notably with regards to SDGs and climate.
These significant challenges have called on all of us to be innovative, to seek ways to attract more private sector financing and to focus on maximising not just the resources available, but also our impact with those limited resources.
…and then the current global pandemic hit!
The needs of our partners became even greater, and the imperative to act became all the more urgent. The Team Europe approach was launched by the EU to show our partners across the globe that Europe is there to support them in addressing, not only their immediate needs, but also their post-COVID recovery.
We, at the EIB, are extremely proud to be a part of Team Europe and stand ready to be a major contributor to this initiative across the globe. We have already seen some impressive examples of how we can work together as European actors to provide both impact and visibility far beyond what we could achieve separately – “more than the sum of the parts” as the title of this session suggests.
Our response to the pandemic has emphasized three key points from a development perspective.
First, it has emphasized the complementarity between the EU Bank, the Commission and EEAS.
For instance, under the EFSD Guarantee, we are providing financing to the COVAX initiative, designed to ensure that vaccines for COVID-19 are accessible to citizens across the globe, and not just a few rich countries.
We were able to do this by combining our in-house engineering and banking expertise with the European Commission’s policy expertise and steer.
As an aside, I might also add that we strongly supported BIONTEC, which just announced extremely positive results of its coronavirus vaccine programme, conducted with Pfizer. Our biotechnical engineers, like the rest of us, are delighted and hopeful that many additional solutions can reach the certification stage. In fact, this was only one company of several promising programmes for vaccines and therapeutics against covid-19 that the EIB has financed.
The COVAX initiative shows the importance of partnership and defending EU values. This is in stark contrast to how certain other global players have acted, and demonstrates the EU’s determination to be a global power for good.
Second, the pandemic has emphasized the need to work together in the field, placing the banking expertise of the EIB at the service of the EU.
Let me take Kenya as one example – as I am here on the panel with Ambassador Mordue…In Nairobi EIB is working hand-in-hand with the EU delegation management team, led by Ambassador Mordue.
…EIB is systematically involved in joint programming. Taking our policy steer from EU delegation experts, we complement with financial and banking know-how. This places EU representation on a level playing field on the ground with other regional powers.
Collaboration goes beyond operational issues, allowing for a sharing of rooms and facilities between teams. Indeed, the spirit of transparency allows for a marketplace of ideas.
Team Europe Initiatives for Kenya are focused on the Green Deal and Digitalisation. EIB is a perfect fit to strengthen these efforts. As the EU’s climate bank, we look for climate in everything that we do. And as the largest multilateral financer of digitalisation worldwide, we know a-thing-or-two about digitalisation.
Thank you Ambassador Mordue for your leadership! You have my word that EIB stands ready to step up its support to help deliver Team Europe’s Initiatives on the ground.
Kenya is just one of many examples across the globe, where our close cooperation and EU approach is making a positive impact.
Third, the pandemic has accelerated existing trends: we observe shifts in long-term dynamics among global economic actors. Global value chains have been disrupted and there has been a further regionalisation of interests.
A few years ago, I argued that Europe must lead efforts against climate sceptics. As Europe is responsible for only 10% of global carbon emissions, it is only logical that this entails significantly increasing our efforts outside the Union.
This is not just a question of climate in the narrow sense and reducing CO2 emissions. It is also a question of Europe’s competitiveness in innovation and green technology.
Other regional powers are taking the lead here as well. China is already ahead of Europe when it comes to clean tech. It is in Europe’s strategic interests to regain this momentum.
And it is in Europe’s interests to be champions of climate diplomacy with leading technologies and projects on the ground. The EIB can help!
Ladies and gentlemen,
I see the EIB as an integral part of the EU menu. I have long advocated an approach in which EIB financing is fully integrated into the offer the EU can make to its partner countries across the globe. Working out of EU delegations, we can place the EU on a level playing field with other regional powers, who have their bankers and engineers at the table for negotiations.
As the EU’s promotional Bank, we have been providing quality investments in support of the EU’s external and development policies over the past six decades – in areas such as climate action and the environment, connectivity, social infrastructure, and support to small businesses.
The potential political leverage this brings is arguably often under-utilised. We are ready to discuss how to maximise our potential partnership in order to support political reform and boost EU development impact and visibility outside the Union.
At the start of a new programming period, we have an opportunity to work better together, hand-in-hand as EU policymakers and EU bankers to provide a strong and robust EU approach to our partner countries.
The enhanced “policy first” approach under NDICI means we should be working closely together much more upstream than has often been the case up to now, jointly identifying needs for investment and reform, and developing blending operations together.
We have been encouraged to see many of your Delegations reaching out to us in the pre-programming phase and strongly urge that you continue to do so now that the formal programming phase has been launched.
Under NDICI, this becomes all the more important, as the EIB’s core mandates will be determined by the programming process.
It is vital to ensure that the strategic programming documents fully facilitate our ability to provide financing in support of EU priorities in all regions outside the EU.
For our part, we continue to increase our presence on the ground, with offices opening for example in Indonesia and Fiji.
With your support we are willing to go further.
…We are ready to be an incubator for green and digital finance and provide you with EU Bankers and sector experts to deliver strategic projects and policies in partner countries.
Combining our investment expertise with the development and policy expertise of the European Commission and EEAS, we can enhance the visibility and impact of EU investments.
This debate should continue beyond today’s event. We aim to find tailored-based solutions that the Bank can offer to strengthen Europe’s efforts in partner countries.
Thank you very much!