EIB Group invests EUR 88 billion in European competitiveness, stability and climate leadership

In 2023, the European Investment Bank Group signed new financing contracts for close to €88 billion for high-impact projects in EU policy priorities, including climate action, sustainable infrastructure, and healthcare, EIB President Nadia Calviño announced today in Brussels.

“Across Europe, the EIB Group is delivering EU priorities: boosting European competitiveness and the EU’s leadership in green technologies, and helping to ensure a more secure future for people across the Union and around the world,” said President Calviño.

“The Group kept its promises. It met and exceeded its targets on a range of key EU priorities. This will translate into tangible benefits for us all, from safer drinking water to improved public transport, from better access to vaccines to more 5G mobile coverage, from job creation and increasing competitiveness to energy security and efficiency,” she added.

With €349 billion of green investment mobilised since 2021, the Group is on track to achieve the goal of €1 trillion of green financing supported by the end of the decade. €49 billion was financed directly for climate action and environmental sustainability in 2023, up from €38 billion in 2022.

In 2023, the Bank’s investments included more than €21 billion as part of REPowerEU, an initiative designed to reduce Europe’s dependence on fossil fuel and accelerate the green transition. The electricity generation capacity financed will be able to power 13.8 million households.

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In a year characterised by growing instability around the world, EIB Global, the Group’s dedicated arm for investments outside of the EU, provided more than €8.4 billion for projects, almost half of which went to the world’s least developed countries and fragile states. Overall, EIB Global financing mobilised €27 billion of investments under the EU Global Gateway initiative, ahead of schedule to reach €100 billion under the programme by 2027. On top of nearly €2 billion of assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, in 2023 the Bank established the EU4U Fund, supported by Member States and the European Commission, to further boost economic resilience and reconstruction in Ukraine.

The EIB Group invested €19.8 billion in innovation and €20 billion to support small and medium-sized enterprises and midcaps. This is largely thanks to investment by the European Investment Fund, the EIB Group’s specialised provider of risk finance, which last year signed close to €15 billion of investments. This includes €1 billion under the European Tech Champions Initiative to scale up start-ups in disruptive technologies and improve Europe’s competitiveness. Among other innovation-focused investments, beneficiaries of EIB Group financing included 19 artificial intelligence projects. “At a time of difficult conditions for investment, the EIB Group is ready to play its countercyclical role, complementing the EU budget and supporting EU Member States and our economies, responding to strong demand across Europe, notably from the private sector,” President Calviño said.

“But we know that the challenges we face demand a hugely scaled up effort, and we can help Europe do exactly that. This week alone, the EIB Group is announcing new projects in Sweden, Romania, Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Lithuania and Bulgaria to support new green technologies from charging stations to railways, green steel manufacturing and solar solutions.“

The Group’s financing in 2023 is expected to support around €320 billion in investment, reach 400,000 companies and support 5.4 million jobs. More than 45% of the Group’s financing inside the EU went to support cohesion regions, with close to 20% going to less developed regions in the EU, where the per capita gross domestic product is less than 75% of the EU average. The Group will announce a country-by-country breakdown of its 2023 results on 1 February 2024.

The European Investment Bank is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It finances sound investment contributing to EU policy goals, including a global just transition to climate neutrality.

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank Group. Its central mission is to support Europe’s micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by helping them to access finance. The EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments that specifically target this market segment. In this role, the EIF contributes to the pursuit of key EU policy objectives such as competitiveness and growth, innovation and digitalisation, social impact, skills and human capital, climate action and environmental sustainability, and more.

“The EIB Group brings value to every country and every sector of the EU’s economy. We give a strong contribution to innovation, inclusion, economic security and competitiveness on our continent, and make sure we work with partners everywhere to increase the impact of our common work,” said President Calviño.