President Calviño: Competition policy for a new global order

Dear friends,

It is a pleasure to join you once more to discuss one of the defining questions on Europe’s agenda: how to secure growth and security in a changing world, where the foundations of our post-war phenomenal success are being challenged from many sides.

Many of you know me, so you will not be surprised to hear that competition policy is one of the main levers to respond to current challenges and – in my view – it is urgent to adapt our main tools and think out of the box to address the game-changing developments taking place at exponential speed around us.

The theme of today's panel – “Competing for the Future” – was at the centre of the discussions with EU finance ministers at last week’s ECOFIN and also at the EIB Group Board of Governors meetings we had in Luxembourg.

The key takeaway I can share with you today is that Europe is serious about reinforcing its economic security, competitiveness, and technological sovereignty. Minds are focused, and things are moving in the four key levers highlighted by all expert reports:

• market integration;
• large-scale investment;
• simplification;
• solid international partnerships.

The EIB Group is playing a strategic role in each of these areas, as Europe's investment engine.

Pan-European by design, we foster market integration and ensure a level playing field for companies in all Member States. And our global presence in 160 countries reinforces Europe's voice in this new world that is in the making, helping diversify supply chains, and opening new markets and opportunities for European companies.

With a €600 billion balance sheet and a stellar AAA rating, the EIB is crowding in private capital and helping to de-risk investment into frontier technologies, from cleantech to AI.

Owned by the 27 Member States of the EU, the EIB Group pioneers common standards and fully embraces the Commission’s agenda of simplification.

Exactly a year ago, we agreed with the Commission to simplify state aid rules to further facilitate support for Europe’s industry and economic competitiveness. And only last week, we signed the 6^th amendment of the InvestEU, a mandate to optimise the use of guarantees from the EU budget and enable the EIB Group to mobilise an additional €70 billion in investments by the end of the current multiannual financial framework.

A final thought before I close.

Economic security and competitiveness are not about the things we keep out. They are about what we can build and produce here in Europe – ensuring that European companies can innovate, compete and grow.

That means creating the right environment for large corporates, and also for startups and scale-ups – the companies that will build tomorrow's world – to grow and thrive here, in Europe and become global champions.

EU regulation and competition policy have a critical role to play: breaking down existing – and fast-growing – dominant positions and fostering consolidation and growth of homegrown industrial and innovation capabilities in markets that are still fragmented, from telecoms to cleantech and defence.

We urgently need to mobilise private capital at scale to catch up in key technologies and stop the outward flow of savings and wealth which are critical for Europe’s future.

This is a priority, also at the core of the EIB Group's mission, creating the right conditions for new businesses – for new players to enter, for pioneers to expand and for champions to compete.

Just to share one example, with the pioneering European Tech Champions Initiative, the EIB Group is helping close the funding gap for Europe's most promising pioneers. This is the biggest fund-of-funds of its kind in Europe, fully dedicated to supporting scale-ups, and in barely two years it has already anchored the creation of 12 new unicorns, and many more are on their way. 

So, there is every reason to be confident. Europe is a superpower, a manufacturing, trade and technology powerhouse, with world-class universities, research centres, startups and investors second to none.

It leads in many of the technologies that will shape the future – from cleantech and advanced manufacturing to biotech, pharmaceuticals and aerospace.

Europe has the scale, the talent and the institutions to remain a leading global economy.

The choices we make at this turning point will shape Europe’s role in the new global order.

Let’s get it right – And get it done fast!

You can count on us in this endeavour.

I wish you a very productive forum.

See you soon.