President Calviño at the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity dear Aurore. Honourable members, it is always a great opportunity and a great pleasure to be able to exchange views with the ECON Committee of the Parliament. And I think it is also a very timely exchange, which gives me also the opportunity to share a strong idea with you, which is the idea that Europe is a superpower. I am recently trying to explain what is underlying this assertion and coming as I am today from the Digital Europe gathering and having been able to visit a number of companies and research centres in Europe, I can only confirm that Europe is a global centre of excellence in some key technologies for the future. 

Quantum and high-performance computing, industrial robotics, advanced manufacturing, aerospace, biotech, healthtech, medical devices, advanced pharmaceuticals. Europe's capacity in this area is second to none in the world. At the same time, Europe is the incubator of the world because these companies, in order to raise the necessary capital and have access to a large unified market, many times need to go and develop elsewhere. And we know what we need to do to make sure that Europe's competitiveness and security is up to the level of our leadership in the world. We need to have deeper integration, including capital markets. We need to mobilise large-scale investment in critical infrastructures and also strategic capabilities. We need simplification to make the EU more agile, more efficient, and we need also to bolster win-win partnerships around the world to diversify our supply chains and also to open new markets for our goods. 

Now, with the record financing of  €100 billion in 2025, a very high level that will be maintained in 2026, the European Investment Bank Group is instrumental to supporting this agenda. And there are two basic points that I wanted to share with you. 

The first is to build on our strengths. Europe's competitive edge in fast-moving sectors lies in its ability to combine speed and scale. And I think this matches very well the role of the ECON Committee, which is about implementation, speed and scale. From the European Investment Bank's perspective, we are investing record levels in energy grids in technological innovation, in security and defence, in housing, water, cohesion, trying to also maximise our impact inside the Union and around the world. And it is very good to see that so many things are changing in the different European institutions and in the member states to make progress in these areas and to make sure that we achieve our objectives, whether it is in the area of artificial intelligence or in the area of the energy transition as you Madame President already mentioned. 

And the second point is about the need to mobilise private capital. It is not just a matter of the public sector, it is a matter of mobilising, leveraging, the European budget. And there is a great opportunity here because in the current geopolitical context, Europe stands out as a beacon of stability and trust, and these are very valuable currencies in the current geopolitical turmoil. We see that Europe is becoming increasingly interesting for investors to reallocate their capital. Yet again, the European Investment Bank Group plays a key role in mobilising private investments with a 30% share in venture debt in Europe in 2025, a 25% share in venture capital mobilisation in Europe in 2025, it is clear that the EIB Group can be a catalyser to mobilise private investment. And we are now working in new initiatives to accompany the legislative process of the Savings and Investments Union, so that we can also generate bottom-up instruments that can mobilise, catalyse, this investment from the private sector. 

So these are the two key ideas I wanted to share with you, and I cannot avoid, but closing with the reference to the next Multiannual Financial Framework, the 2028- 2034. Key idea from us is let's build again on what works. InvestEU is a true European success story and the European Investment Bank is the key partner in implementing existing instruments like InvestEU inside the Union, also Global Europe, the NDICI outside the EU. We have a 1:15 euro leverage when it comes to mobilising and having an impact on the ground with the guarantees from the EU budget. It is interesting to know that in the case of InvestEU, 70% of the investment mobilised is private investment. And so this partnership, this close partnership, between the EIB and the European Commission in mobilising the European budget, we think is a very strong basis on which to build the next MFF. 

You will not be surprised pan-European by design with a robust balance sheet, a AAA rating, strong partnerships in Europe and around the world, a core role at the heart of the multilateral development bank network and also the national promotional bank network, the European Investment Bank Group is the natural partner to deploy the instruments that are being shaped as we speak. I think that we can maximise the potential of the EU budget going forward, and I am very grateful that the ECON Committee actually has expressed a very strong and clear support for this core role, this central role of the EIB today and in the years to come. 

So thank you very much and happy to take your questions.