President Calviño at Empowering a Competitive Union: from InvestEU to the European Competitiveness Fund

I am very happy to join you today, dear executive vice president, dear colleagues.

I will also be brief and compliment the executive vice president's excellent introduction because I think that as a key partner to the European Commission and the implementation of InvestEU, which is a true success story and this is the spoiler, that's basically what I wanted to share with you today.

It is useful to share some thoughts on our experience, our journey so far, the priorities, and what we are doing still in the current multi-annual financial framework to make the most of the European budget and to maximise impact on the ground. 

As the vice president said, we are at a moment of change. One has the feeling that everything everywhere all at once is changing. And in this context, the European Union is actually a beacon of stability, clarity, confidence for the rest of the world, as we can really verify, whenever we have a discussion with one of our partners. 

Now looking forward, there is a clear call for us to step up our support to the European economy, and in particular to European competitiveness. And a number of expert reports have given us three clear levers, three clear indications of what we need to do. We need to integrate, invest, and simplify. And the first good news that we can share today is that that's exactly the Commission's agenda, and that's exactly the agenda of Vice President Sejourne. And this is absolutely the agenda of the European Investment Bank, as the key partner when implementing InvestEU and other European instruments from the European budget. 

Obviously what we need to do going forward is to build on our strengths, and InvestEU is a true success story. It turns every euro of public funds into massive investment across EU countries, driving innovation, supporting strategic industries, accelerating Europe's transition to a sustainable competitive economy, supporting the social economy, which is at the heart of the European economic model. 

Now, as I was saying, the European Investment Bank Group is the main implementing partner of InvestEU. We have deployed 94% of the allocated guarantee across 1,074 approved operations for over 44 billion euros that supports innovative projects and operations with a higher risk profile, a strong environmental impact. 

And one key indicator of the success is that market demand has been very strong from day one. Market demand has exceeded the allocated funds from day one. 

Just some recent examples to illustrate what InvestEU means on the ground, we have recently financed Baltica 2, Poland's and the EU's largest offshore wind farm to date. We are supporting projects in life sciences like the SNIPR Biome in Denmark, or cancer research in Spain, or research projects for antimicrobial resistance. Startups in nanosatellites, a company in Germany developing carbon-neutral E-fuels, Samotics project in the Netherlands, which uses AI for predictive maintenance. 

We are financing energy-efficient homes and residences throughout the whole EU, through the Advisory Hub. These are clear examples, and I'm really happy that today, this afternoon through the conference, you're going to be listening to beneficiaries of InvestEU investments that explain the importance of this programme on the ground. 

From the European Investment Bank point of view, we provide portfolio guarantees, equity investments. We are working through investment funds. We're also supporting Europe's ecosystem of venture capital and investment funds, and beyond financing already been mentioned by the executive vice president, also by me, InvestEU Advisory is catalysing real investment projects on the ground. 

Now, from day one, InvestEU faced more demand than it could meet, and as already indicated, we're not waiting for the next multi-annual financial framework to try to maximise the leverage of each euro coming from the European budget. Thanks to the excellent collaboration of the European Commission and the European Investment Bank, we have put forward proposals that will allow us to mobilise 2.5 billion euros in extra guarantees, thus mobilising over 50 billion euros in total investment. 

But of course, we are now working to go beyond that so that we can liberate existing guarantees which are immobilised from legacy programmes, also mobilising the reflows, so that we can all-in-all increase the available guarantees by 6.7 billion euros. Thus, again, allowing us between now and the end of the current multi-annual financial framework, to scale up the crowding in of private investments so that we can maximise the impact on the ground without requiring any extra euros from European taxpayers, a consideration that I think, and as ex-director general for the European budget, a consideration that I think it's extremely relevant when we are discussing these. 

So simplification is not only nice, it's not only good to have, it pays off, it allows us to have more leverage and more impact on the ground, reducing red tape, reducing the burden for our beneficiaries. 

Now, I need to tell you our collaboration with Vice President Sejourne is excellent, with DG GROW is also excellent. Now we're trying to look for champions that also allow us to streamline advisory and our mandate outside the EU because the competitiveness of European companies is not only linked to projects inside our boundaries, it also has to do with projects outside the EU where European companies can compete, and can have the support of the European budget in order to be also increasing these international competitiveness. 

We are also looking together at the maximisation of the blending with structural funds. I discussed this with the Association of Social Europe only last week, can we see how we can blend grants and financial instruments, how we can maximise the use of the national windows so that we can mobilise to the maximum structure of funds and the recovery and resilience facility through this kind of financial instruments? 

So in a nutshell, what I wanted to share with you in terms of the past and the present of InvestEU is that we must build on what works. InvestEU has proven its value. It should be the basis for whatever proposals going forward, and the partnership between the European Commission, national promotional banks, and the European Investment Bank at the heart of the network of national promotional institutions works and can really be the basis for a successful story in the future. 

Financial instruments and budgetary guarantees will be more important than ever in the next multi-annual financial framework. And so what we will need is maximum flexibility to try to maximise the leverage and the use of all these instruments. 

Final word on market integration, because I spoke about two levers, simplification, investment. Now, market integration, it is very clear that for European companies to be competitive, they have to seize the full power of the internal market, the full power of our union. Our union is our main strength, and companies need to benefit from an internal market of more than 440, close to 450 million citizens. 

Now, the European Investment Bank is in itself a capital market union instrument. We issue bonds under a European signature. We provide a pan-European platform to channel savings into productive investments. Now, it will be really essential that we also boost the internal market for capital. This is always top and centre of every public speech. There is a strong political momentum. It will be of the essence that we enable private finance to be mobilised through an internal market that is deep and large. It is important that we favour pan-European instruments, also streamlining our own control processes. 

For example, a fast track for state aid control, so that we ensure that European instruments, European support, European institutions can foster this market integration and pan-European projects. 

Let me close with this idea, as I started at the beginning, what is the role of Europe in these times of uncertainty and volatility? Well, we are a beacon of trust, confidence, and stability. As InvestEU shows, in my view, when we work together, we are unstoppable really. 

And Europe is also a beacon of human rights and values. These are our strengths, and this is the basis on which we need to build going forward at a point in time that, let me tell you dear friends, I am more proud than ever to be European, and I'm more proud than ever to be contributing to all these priorities to the benefit of current and future generations in Europe at the helm of the European Investment Bank. 

Let me close here, and I wish you a very productive discussion this afternoon. Thank you.