President Calviño: Walking the Talk

Thank you chair, dear Alena.

Good morning Governors. It is a great pleasure to welcome you all here today.

Yesterday we had a very insightful exchange on tech sovereignty and economic security, on Europe and the world.

This is the perfect setting for today’s meeting, where I’d like to share three main messages on how the European Investment Bank Group is playing its role as Europe's investment engine, mobilising large-scale finance for shared priorities, investing with purpose, and getting things done.

First, the EIB Group is delivering on the mandate you gave us.

Two years ago, in June 2024, you — the 27 shareholders — unanimously endorsed the EIB Group’s Strategic Roadmap for the period 2024 to 2027. The mid-term report, that we already shared with you, shows that the Group is well on track across all the 8 priorities. Actually, in some areas, delivery is exceeding targets.

You asked us to step up our financing volumes and risk-taking and we delivered.

Thanks to your support, and the hard work of our teams on the ground, annual investment volumes rose to a record €100 billion in 2025, and we are on track to maintain this level again this year.

We also increased risk-taking, raising the annual volume of EIB Group’s high-risk activities by 10 billion since the adoption of the Roadmap, and equity investments to a record.

And all this while preserving our stellar triple A rating and strong financial ratios – which are, as you know, key to ensure that we can continue to borrow at very good financial conditions and pass them on to clients!

This is going beyond numbers – it’s concrete projects with real impact, which is our main focus - impact on the ground: 

1.    EIB Group’s annual energy financing has doubled since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As we discussed yesterday in the Eurogroup, all these investments now help keep the lights on - and electricity prices in check in Europe - amid the escalation of the crisis in the Middle East this year.

The EIB Group is financing around half of all ongoing energy grid projects, one in five solar plants projects, one in three onshore wind projects and most offshore wind developments in Europe.

From the Bay of Biscay interconnector between France and Spain and the Princess Elisabeth Energy Island in Belgium to power distribution upgrades in Slovakia and Latvia, combined wind and hydro generation in Portugal, and support to efficiency upgrades by small businesses in Croatia. The list could take us two hours.

The energy revolution is in full swing. Europe is on the right track to break free from excessive reliance on fossil fuels and gain energy autonomy but there is wide agreement that we need to speed up – so this is an area where there is some demand and where the EIB Group probably needs to increase financial support to speed up public and private investment.

I want to pay tribute to VP Fayolle, sitting here on my right, because his resilience and passion have been instrumental to make the EIB Group The Climate Bank - adjusting, not static, but flexible, to respond to Europe’s evolving needs to boost competitiveness and security.

2.    Second priority: digitalisation and technological innovation, one year ago in this room we launched TechEU, the biggest ever financing programme for innovation in Europe.

The programme is progressing well, backing the champions of tomorrow — from quantum-computing in France to advanced nanomaterials in Estonia and in Finland, to a new generation of space-launch vehicles developed in Germany, very topical today, and the expansion of low-earth orbit satellites by innovative firms in Luxembourg …. Innovators advancing cutting edge stem-cell therapies against Parkinson’s and diabetes in Sweden, and new medicines to fight off antibiotic-resistant infections in Denmark. Again, I could spend two hours just talking about the list of flagship projects that we are financing throughout the EU.

I would like to highlight – I have already briefly mentioned it in previous ECOFIN and Eurogroup meetings - the progress we are making in this area is pioneering the Savings and Investments Union: we are launching and scaling-up pan-European financial instruments that can channel savings by investors into productive capital for companies to grow here in Europe.

The EIB Group has developed into Europe’s largest venture financier — with around 30% of all venture debt and a quarter of all venture capital in Europe. Crowding in private capital, private investors, and nurturing this venture capital ecosystem so that our best companies can grow and thrive here, in the EU.

Our flagship European Tech Champions Initiative, as you all know, has enabled the creation of 15 mega-funds – with more than €1 billion in capital – and 12 unicorns!

This is making a real difference, and things are moving fast: When I sent you the letter for this Board of Governors meeting, we only had eleven unicorns in our list. A new one has been added in the last weeks. It is Mews, a Dutch company developing cloud solutions for the hospitality industry.

We understand that scale and speed are of the essence.

Europe is a real superpower when it comes to technology, with great universities and research centres, a vibrant ecosystem of startups.

As you know, we are in the middle of the fund-raising process for the second phase of the European Tech Champions Initiative and the Defence Equity Facility, and I hope that we can count on your support.

Because if we succeed in expanding these two strategic funds-of-funds and rally also the European Commission’s Scale-up Europe Fund and national initiatives – such as Tibi in France and WIN in Germany - to mobilise private institutional investors, we will take Europe’s capital markets to the next stage. And if we also make progress in the legislative track that is going to take place here in the ECOFIN for market integration, for this capital markets union that we keep discussing, this will allow us to successfully close the gap with the United States and scale-up talent, ideas, technologies and companies.

3.      Turning to security and defence, the policy shift in this area is a game changer for the organisation.

In parallel to expanding eligibility to pure military projects, as well as companies and investment funds with activities in all areas of defence, and conducting a detailed and continuous market assessment, we quadrupled financing by end-2025.

We have built a robust pipeline of 25 flagship projects spanning across more than 20 member states, alongside several pan-European programmes.

We are on track to reach or even exceed our target for 2026: above 5% of lending in the EU in the area of security and defence.

Importantly, 70% of our financing is now channelled into “core defence” if we follow NATO’s logic.

We are investing in infrastructure, like the flagship military base in Lithuania that we announced a year ago here, which is progressing very well. The signature announcements are expected this month.

We are supporting industry leaders.

We are also supporting small and medium-sized companies in the supply chain of Europe's large contractors. Actually, we expect the 3 billion programme of financial support to small and mid-size companies intermediated through the banking sector to be fully deployed in just two years – by 2027. This is a sector that requires further attention and that is why we are conducting a continuous market testing.

Our financing is also backing innovative firms developing breakthrough new technologies, unicorns like Quantum Systems and Harmattan AI that are developing the next generation of drones to reinforce Europe's deterrence capabilities, or TYTAN, another start-up that develops autonomous interceptors to protect EU skies.

So, I believe my message this morning is quite clear. This is a fight to protect our democracies, our security. And in this fight, the EIB Group is all in.

At this point, I would like to thank VP Robert de Groot for spearheading the Group’s efforts in this area, and I want to also thank all our staff, who ventured into an area where we had no experience, no expertise, and actually the EIB Group has become a pioneer amongst financial institutions in record time.

4.    Defending democracy also means defending the values and core policies that underpin the European project, like cohesion and agriculture, and the social infrastructures holding our societies together, like education, healthcare and housing.

Investments for projects in cohesion regions rose to a record last year, and we are on track also to exceed our targets again this year.

This is not just about solidarity. This is about competitiveness and economic growth, because it means bringing opportunity where talent is in each and every corner of our Union. We are contributing to Europe’s growth when we are financing rail modernisations in Hungary, motorway upgrades in Slovenia, advanced copper processing facilities in Bulgaria, and investing in pioneering deep-tech firms developing artificial intelligence and big-data solutions in Poland.

Here it is important to remember that the EIB Group provides financing but also technical assistance which is highly valued by National Promotional Banks, and national and regional authorities. We are advising and supporting countries like Malta, Cyprus, Romania and Czechia in deploying EU budget instruments, including the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Also a very topical subject for many countries these days.

5.    The EIB Group is delivering on its commitment to support European agriculture and the bioeconomy, to safeguard the EU’s food supply, the best in the world, providing innovative finance for farmers in Romania, southern Italy and Greece, and record investments in water and wastewater management to adapt and reduce the impact of climate change.

Only a few weeks ago, Vice-President Vigliotti, sitting here, announced a new partnership with BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions to support small and medium-sized enterprises in the agriculture and bioeconomy sectors across Europe. This is very much appreciated by mayors and by other institutions.

6.    On social infrastructures, we are financing affordable housing from Czechia to Portugal, Austria to Ireland, and Belgium to Spain.

Student housing projects are progressing well also in Cyprus, Italy, Greece and all across Europe, including in Berlin.

Vice-President Tsakiris, who is responsible for the housing portfolio, behind me, is on a permanent roadshow across the EU also to ramp up the Housing TechEU programme so that we can develop innovative materials and building techniques and so that we can build cheaper, sustainable houses, faster.

7.    Outside the EU, our stronger focus is on supporting Ukraine, supporting the enlargement process, and the Global Gateway agenda, forging strategic partnerships worldwide.

The EIB Group remains Ukraine’s main investment partner, with the largest level of disbursements out of all European public financial institutions present in the country. We are ready to play an important role in the country’s reconstruction and accession process, as the financing arm of the 27 EU member states.

I am grateful for VP Nehammer’s leadership in this area. He will be signing a very important memorandum of understanding with the Commission and Ukraine, in Gdansk, to provide technical support to ensure good connectivity but also to secure the European Union’s border. I think this is a very important issue for all neighbouring Member states.

On enlargement, I was in the Western Balkans last month, where we announced major new financing to support Montenegro’s and Albania’s path to EU membership.

On Global Gateway, we are meeting our targets ahead of schedule and we are reinforcing our strategic focus to align our financing with EU’s foreign policy objectives. With a closer coordination with the European Commission and also a Team Europe approach with national promotional banks, so that we can promote a strong European voice in the world.

I could see this first hand in the recent visit to Mexico just some days after the high-level summit where the modernised Trade and Investment agreement was signed. The fact that the EIB was there sent a very strong message: Europe delivers – we put our money where our mouth is.

In the current geopolitical context, there is a very strong interest around the world in deepening cooperation with the EU. A strong interest also in enlarging the presence of European companies in implementing projects around the world. And the EIB is perceived as a trusted, reliable partner that continues to promote our policies and values with a win-win approach.

This is why we are longing to keep the EIB’s exclusive role for sovereign lending in the Global Instrument of the next MFF is discussed as we speak. The numbers show that the EIB has clearly delivered, flying the EU flag, and with the highest share of EU companies benefiting from global projects than any other multilateral development institution.

We are working on a Trade and Investment Booster instrument, to accompany the Commission with the trade negotiations around the world.

The upcoming chairmanship by the EIB of the Multilateral Development Banks network in 2027 is an opportunity for Europe, through the EIB, to set priorities and make progress in areas considered to be the most important: private sector mobilisation, water and resilience, global health and human capital, critical raw materials and Artificial Intelligence.

This brings me to my second message: we are ready to do more.

The world is changing fast.

Yesterday’s Eurogroup showed unity and determination for Europe to step up rather than step back.

Today, I can assure you that the EIB Group will be on the front lines:

• Pan-European by design.
• With a €600 billion balance sheet.
• Owned by the 27 Member States of the EU, with a very robust capital and liquidity position, as you will hear later from the Audit Committee.

Leveraging this unique position, the EIB Group is ready to do more, to further step-up financing and risk-taking and impact, provided that there are the necessary public guarantees from the EU budget.

I want to stress this point for the EIB, these public guarantees, under the Multiannual Financial, are really necessary, they are instrumental. Without such guarantees, in the medium-term, the EIB Group’s activity will have to scaled down, as well as risk-taking, inside and outside the EU.

While with a robust guarantee framework, the EIB can contribute even more to the four pillars of Europe’s economic security:

First, energy autonomy. We have a very strong pipeline. Also in the area of nuclear energy, where projects are currently in very advanced appraisal stage.

At the same time, the EIB Group is stepping up support to homegrown technologies, like solar inverters.

Vice-President Primorac – Marko, who was until very recently around this table as finance minister - oversees our activities in the area of energy and can give you more details on our plans.

Secondly, Technological leadership.

Just to give you an example, our teams are currently assessing the biggest artificial intelligence projects ever financed by the EIB Group, including investment into one of Europe’s champions in this area, as well as a major computing capacity addition.

Thirdly, resilient critical infrastructures, physical and social —digital cables, water pipelines, military mobility corridors.

And finally, global partnerships and alliances — to diversify our supply chains, open new markets, strengthen Europe’s voice in the world, and ensure access to critical minerals.

Vice President Beer has been touring the world on an extensive outreach campaign in partner countries, including Australia and Canada, with whom we have relations and which can play a key role in ensuring access to Critical Raw Materials for Europe’s industries.

My third and final message is one of trust and confidence.

On our side, we are making progress in ensuring that the EIB Group is fit for purpose to expand its activities and impact: Digitalising processes, cutting red tape, creating one-stop-shops and platforms, so that clients can have access to financial instruments from the European Commission, from the EIB Group, from national programmes. And we removing gold-plating and additional reporting requirements.

The result of this is that our time to market has been cut to six months for major initiatives such as TechEU and security and defence.

Vice President Nehammer is driving the digitalisation agenda and Vice President Mora, who used to be a usual colleague at the ECOFIN, is responsible for the time to market. I am really grateful that they have taken on these important tasks.

And I am convinced that, together, we can face today’s challenges successfully:

With your unanimous support, we have come a long way in just two and a half years,

We approved the Strategic Roadmap, we increased the gearing ratio cap, we have reinforced our coordination with the European Commission to leverage 15 times every euro in the EU budget, crowding in private capital, acting as anchor investor and also with a seal of quality that is very much appreciated in the market.

The EIB Group has a double hat – as financing arm of the EU and a proud member of the Multilateral Development Bank network – which gives Europe, gives you, a unique tool to promote our shared values and interests around the world and support the multilateral rules-based order.

Working as a team, with the dedication and commitment of our staff, that I want to whole-heartedly thank them here in front of you, from Luxembourg to Kyiv, we turn the idea of Europe into impact that people can feel and our partners can trust.

This spirit of unity is even more important going forward.

My message is: we count on you. And you can count on us.

I am really confident that together we will continue to write Europe’s success story in the coming years.

Thank you very much.