Brussels wants Nadia Calviño's European Investment Bank (EIB) to leave its lending comfort zone and show more boldness when it comes to supporting the two great challenges of the European Union: the climate transition, currently the victim of populist attacks that take advantage of the agricultural protests in several countries to capitalize on votes ahead of the European elections in June, and in military support for Ukraine, where Europe is falling behind on its promises to send weapons and ammunition.
A day after the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, called during the EIB annual forum in Luxembourg to break the “taboos” on the financing of EIB military projects, the Vice President of the European Commission responsible for the Green New Deal, Maros Sefcovic has urged the self-proclaimed “climate bank” to risk more and put political interests before financial security when financing projects that help the ecological transition.
“Political considerations should sometimes take precedence over benefits,” said Sefcovic, for whom “securing more funds for climate-related investments at EU level, bringing forward their financing and facilitating access to it, are determining conditions.” for the green transition.” In particular, the vice president has pointed out the need for more funds to obtain critical minerals and the infrastructure to guarantee the electrical grid. Sefcovic has proposed that the EIB create separate specialized working groups. In addition, he has also highlighted the promotion of neutral technologies, including another of the bank's taboo topics despite pressure from one of its main partners, France: nuclear energy. Especially now that the Commission has proposed a European industrial alliance to develop mini nuclear reactors as one of the ways to achieve a 90% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2040. “We must be less dogmatic and more pragmatic,” added Sefcovic. .
After the annual EIB forum in Luxembourg, his first major public event since assuming the presidency of the organization in January, Calviño has acknowledged that “there is room” to do more, and that the countries themselves have asked him during these weeks that he has been in charge. his new position that the European bank “do more”. At the same time, however, he has drawn a clear red line: guaranteeing the bank's solvency. “The protection of triple A It is an absolute priority for us, our financial advantage derives from it,” he explained in a conversation with a group of journalists. “Only with these strong solvency conditions can we have attractive financial conditions and be able to lend to States or companies under good conditions,” he insisted.
Brussels unrest
Luxembourg's prudence collides with the visible concern of Brussels, marked by the European elections in June, which will lead to the renewal of all institutions and, if the forecasts are confirmed, to a significant advance of the populist and more Eurosceptic extreme right, some even clearly pro-Russian. Also in the spotlight is the not inconsiderable possibility of Donald Trump returning to the White House, which would imply (negatively) the West's support for Ukraine. Opening the EIB's annual forum on Wednesday, Michel was clear in his message that he expects the institution to broaden its military agenda.
“We have to make progress in improving our regulatory framework, so that financing and orders are more predictable for our defense industry,” said the president of the European Council. And a key part of the discussion, he noted, is “the role of the EIB and the different European institutions in supporting defense investment.”
The institution already took a key turn in March 2022, when it approved the new European Strategic Security Initiative that allows the financing of dual-use security and defense projects – military and civil -, and made 6 billion euros available for this purpose. until 2027. A figure that, in June of last year, increased to 8,000 million euros. Of this amount, the EIB points out that only about 2 billion have been spent so far, so there is still room, as Calviño points out, to do more. However, not necessarily everything that Brussels would like, since it would require a political decision to change the bank's mandate.
Hence, all the issues raised by Michel and Sefcovic will be debated, according to Calviño, in the next Ecofin, at the informal meeting of Ministers of Economy and Finance to be held in the Belgian city of Ghent on February 22 and 23. “We will have to find the right balance between taking risks and protecting our solvency position,” the EIB president said. Something that could mean, he said, “combining businesses that may have a greater margin, but also a greater risk, with other businesses or with other parts” of their activity, for example, “loans and financial support to SMEs”. “Perhaps they allow us to have a base of financial support for the European Union and a countercyclical role that in the end provides an adequate balance and an ideal portfolio,” she maintained.
The EIB launches a network of senior executives to lead the fight against climate change
This Thursday, the EIB launched the Network of Women Leaders in Climate Change, a group of senior private sector officials from across the EU who will analyze how to “accelerate action on climate change.” The first meeting of the so far 40 members of the network, among them the Spanish Beatriz Corredor, president of Red Eléctrica; Almudena de la Mata, from Blockchain Intelligence, or Belén Linares, from Acciona, takes place this Thursday and until Friday in Luxembourg, after the two days of the EIB annual forum that supports this initiative, conscious, he asserts, of the “ importance of female leadership in the development and implementation of environmental solutions.”
The president of the EIB, Nadia Calviño, has expressed confidence that this new network “will provide fresh ideas and a new impetus to achieve more transformative investments.” According to the EIB, there is a broad consensus on “women's leadership in the development and implementation of environmental solutions.” Something that clashes, however, with the reality of the glass ceiling that means that there are still few women in positions of greatest responsibility in key companies to act against climate change. Hence this network of businesswomen who will seek the best way to share knowledge and best practices to accelerate climate action, trusts the Luxembourg-based financial institution.
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