President Calviño: Going Big, Going Fast

Your Royal Highness, Monseigneur, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues,  

Welcome to this year’s EIB Group Forum!

It is such a pleasure to be in the company of so many friends, committed policymakers, business leaders, innovators, and civil society champions in this annual gathering in Luxembourg.

Let me start by thanking the EIB Group’s teams that organised this great event. Like every year, they put a lot of effort and put their hearts into bringing such an impressive lineup of speakers – of thinkers and doers – and making all of you feel at home and for some days making Luxembourg the place to be. Let’s give them a round of applause! 

And I also want to thank the speakers and all of you attending the Forum here and online. When there are so many things happening in the world, when there are so many points of interest to attend to, that fact that you are here shows that this gathering has been consolidated as a key event to discuss and exchange views on current challenges and opportunities.

There is also a need for people to come together, to speak, to try to find solutions acting in a consensual manner, trying to build win-win partnerships. And that, I think, is the main deliverable that we have for us this week. And in previous occasions, we had exchanged a lot about these challenges, opportunities the way forward.

There is unanimous agreement on the four things that Europe need to do at this junction:

• Deepen European integration, including capital markets.  
• Large-scale investment in critical infrastructure and strategic technologies and capabilities.  
• Simplification to make the EU more agile and efficient.  
• And more win-win partnerships and global alliances to diversify our supply chains and open new markets, and also to build strong partnerships and friendships in this brave new world. 

Since our last gathering a year ago, momentum is building in all these areas. Minds are focused, things are moving, and the European Investment Bank Group, as the financial arm of the European Union, is playing a strategic role, a key role in delivering results with impact that businesses and people can feel and our partners can trust. 

To help frame the discussions of the next few days, I would like to make three points: 

Superpower Europe 

First, as the reshaping of the geopolitical context enters a new phase, Europe has the capacity, the resources – the financial, diplomatic, and economic muscle – to lead and contribute to shaping the new global order as a beacon of stability, security and values.  

Europe’s strength and resilience is one of the key takeaways of the EIB Group’s annual Investment Report, to be presented later today by our excellent Economics Department.  

Based on a survey of nearly 13,000 firms across the EU and the US, the report shows that European firms are weathering well the tariff shock, they continue to invest and innovate, diversifying their supply chains and trade flows, and benefitting from the world’s biggest and ever-expanding network of free-trade agreements. 

These findings are also reflected in the performance of financial markets:

European stock markets outperformed US exchanges in 2025, rewarding investors who put their trust in our economy. And they continue to perform better than the other side of the Atlantic so far this year.  

The economy has remained resilient despite multiple shocks. 

Opinion polls show record levels of public support for the EU and the euro, and global surveys indicate that majorities around the world see the European Union as a great power on an equal footing with the US and China. Sometimes others see things clearer than we do.  

Europe is a global superpower, a €19 trillion economy, with a vast single market of nearly a half-billion people, ahead of a new wave of enlargement. In nominal terms, Europe’s economy is bigger than China’s; in purchasing power terms, it is about as big as the US. 

A manufacturing and export powerhouse, home to world-class universities and research centres, as well as a vibrant startup ecosystem of startups.  

Equally important, Europe is emerging as a sanctuary for science, democracy and the rule of law, a magnet for global talent in these volatile times, and an anchor of trust for our partners.  

The Investment Report also shows that the adoption by European companies of new technologies, like Artificial Intelligence, matches what we see across the Atlantic. 

And the EU is already a centre of excellence in key technologies like quantum and high-performance computing, like health tech and biotech, advanced manufacturing and industrial robotics, cleantech, and aerospace. I don't need to explain here in this venue and in this country how important the capacity of European companies is in this key area.

Scale and Speed 

My second point is that scale and speed are essential to capitalise on these strengths.  

I was in Brussels and Munich a few days ago, where I could see the impressive potential of European pioneer companies in new technologies, many of which have received support from the EIB Group, by the way:  

Like Quandela, from France, which builds industry-grade quantum computing… 

… And Isar Aerospace, from Germany, which is developing a new generation of rockets, boosting Europe’s autonomous access to space… 

We have a rich gathering of such pioneers at the Forum this week.

Their message is loud and clear: we need to mobilise capital at scale, so that ideas, technologies and companies born European, can also grow and thrive here in Europe. 

This means a large internal market without barriers or different regulations. And it also means pan-European financing instruments that channel savings into productive investment. 

The EIB Group is it itself a Capital Markets Union instrument:  

• Pan-European by design, with projects and presence in every corner, of our Union, in every region of our Union and in 160 countries around the world. 

• With a €600 billion balance sheet, a robust AAA-rating and €100 billion in annual business last year – it will be maintained in 2026 – and perfectly matching and aligned with the Europe’s political and policy priorities.  

• Owned by the 27 Member States of the European Union, not more, not less. 

• And with a diversified portfolio that enables large-scale investment and at the same time high-risk innovative ventures, mobilising private finance. 

The EIB Group is leveraging every euro of the EU budget to mobilise 15 euros of total investment, the bulk of which from the private sector. It also has a very successful experience in introducing financial instruments that put Europe's capital to work. 

Let me give you one example: Green bonds, an asset class that the EIB Group pioneered back in 2007, with a very close partnership with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, have mobilised trillions of euros of investment towards sustainable projects since then, boosting the international role of the euro and deepening European bond markets. 

The EIB Group is also Europe’s biggest venture finance trigger, with a 30% market share in European venture debt and 25% in European venture capital last year. We are signing deals in these areas every week. 

TechEU, our flagship financing programme to support €250 billion of investment into new technologies by 2027 is on track, to achieve these results. In less than three years, our instruments have already doubled the number of European mega funds investing into scaleups and anchored the creation of 11 European unicorns, fast-growing companies with at least €1 billion in capital! 

And today, I can announce the EIB Group is going a step further:  

This year, we plan to extend the reach of the European Tech Champions Initiative, the biggest fund of funds of its kind in Europe, fully dedicated to supporting scaleups. Our aim is to mobilise private institutional investors in supporting European innovators, complementing Commission initiatives like the ScaleUp Europe Fund and the upcoming 28^th regime for pan-European investors and companies. 

We are also working on an exit toolbox, scaling up venture debt, convertible instruments, acquisition finance, and tailored support to facilitate listings in European markets. 

We are very interested to hear your views and proposals this week, as we finalise the design of these instruments to respond to market needs. We will also be organising a roundtable with investors shortly to finetune our instruments.  

Unity is Our Strength 

My third point is that when we stick together, we are unstoppable. And that is why is so important to build these partnerships to achieve these objectives. Time and time again, the EU has shown that it can go big and move fast.  

My confidence is based on real evidence. Let me share some examples: 

In 2020, it was a European biotech company that developed a vaccine against COVID in a matter of months, helping the world put down a once-in-a-lifetime, I hope, pandemic. And European leaders launched a massive recovery and resilience programme financed by joint debt – an unprecedented show of solidarity and unity. 

Then, when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine caused a massive spike in energy prices, the Eurozone’s GDP grew faster than China's and the US. Investment in clean energy is booming and Europe is irreversibly cutting dependence on Russian gas. 

The EIB Group is proud to finance half of the projects going on in Europe to reinforce energy grids, one in five solar energy plants, one in three onshore wind projects and the majority of offshore wind projects in Europe.  

From interconnectors and transmission networks in Spain, France, Italy and Greece, to nuclear facilities in Finland, to new railways in Czechia, energy efficiency investments in Croatia and for SMEs throughout the whole EU, decarbonisation of heavy industries in Portugal, and offshore wind parks in Poland.  

These are towering symbols of European manufacturing excellence and industrial might and they are creating thousands of jobs across the supply chain, and support industries where Europe is a global champion. Producing clean power also cuts the dependence of our economies to fossil fuel imports, and their volatile price swings, and cements EU’s energy sovereignty and independence. I don't need to emphasise the importance of these very, very core objectives of the European Investment Bank in these troubling times.

European renewable energy stocks are up more than 50% in the past year, reflecting increased demand for clean power. And major European car manufacturers reported an annual increase of more than 60% in their electric vehicle sales in Europe.  

So my main message is  that political rhetoric may shift, there may be high-level debate about these issues, but the business case is clear: an energy revolution is in full swing, and Europe is leading the way into tomorrow’s world.  

We also need to move together, fast and at scale, to defend democracy in this new geopolitical order. 

When it comes to security and defence investment, 2025 was a turning point for the EIB Group.  

It was from this podium, exactly one year ago, where I announced the change in our policies, expanding beyond dual use to start investing into pure defence projects. 

Our financing volumes have multiplied by four, in two years. We reached already the 5% target  total business inside the EU in 2025, and the EIB Group has a robust pipeline of flagship projects in five key areas:  

• Large critical infrastructure, including military mobility, such as a flagship military base in Lithuania’s border with Belarus.  

• Reinforcing homegrown industrial capabilities, supporting leading players in the areas of drones and aerospace.  

• Research and development of new security technologies, like the research programmes of Thales and Indra. Only a few weeks ago, we signed an agreement with an innovative Dutch company developing a pioneering technology of fibre-optic sensors to protect Europe’s seabed and underwater assets, like high voltage grids – another groundbreaking research programme, and support for large European contractors. 

• Fourth, we are supporting SMEs in the supply chain of European defence contractors, partnering up with commercial banks – from the Deutsche Bank, Bank Populaire Caisse d’Epargne in France, Piraeus Bank in Greece, Erste Bank in Austria, Santander in Spain. 

• And finally, we are nurturing the development of a venture capital ecosystem investing in European security and defence,  

I can also announce today that we will expand the successful Defence Equity Facility, through which the European Investment Fund acts as anchor investor, mobilising capital into specialised private funds in the area of security and defence. And in the course of the Forum we will also be announcing another major investment into a pan-European venture capital fund dedicated to investments in deeptech in this area of defence. 

Security is not just a matter of defence capabilities, it is also linked to energy, to technology, to our social infrastructures and trade agreements underpinning reliable supply chains and strong partnerships around the world. 

I am really happy that we will have high-level speakers at the Forum to continue to build strong win-win partnerships around the world. As a proud member of the Multilateral Development Bank family, the European Investment Bank Group is supporting many excellent projects that contribute to a more stable, more peaceful, more prosperous world. 

Conclusion  

A final word before I close. This fight for our strategic autonomy and prosperity, is at its core, a fight for our values. It's about what defines us as Europeans, like the social infrastructure that underpins our way of life, like high quality health care and education, our food and agricultural products, and good homes for our people.  

By the way, the EIB Group is on track to double its financing volumes for housing innovation, renovation, and new buildings, and help deliver 1 million homes for Europeans by 2030.  

It’s a fight for a more inclusive society, with equal opportunities for everyone – for every region, every community, and every group in this Union. 

As we approach the International Women’s Day, we are announcing a new gender action plan, to further empower women and support gender equality - politically, economically, financially.  

When words like climate, inclusion and equality, even women are banned and become revolutionary in some places, we see them as our compass.  

Because that is what makes Europe great. 

Our strength is based on progress, not nostalgia. Let me close with the lyrics of a song by Leonard Cohen that I find very inspiring: "Ring the bells that still can ring… There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.” 

So let’s ring our bells. 

Let’s move forward!