EIB Group President Nadia Calviño speaks at Georgetown University, school of foreign service on "A strong Europe in a changing world" in Washington DC, during the 2025 World Bank Group-IMF Spring Meetings.
It’s a great pleasure to see to you here and so many young people joining, and I think it is a very timely moment, a very timely debate in the current geopolitical context when so many things are changing around us. To have the opportunity to listen, to have a debate, and to share with you some reflections on today’s challenges and the role of Europe in today’s world and in the new global order that is in the making.
Based on my personal experience, indeed, first at the European Commission, then as a minister and vice president of the government of Spain, and now as president of the European Investment Bank. I’d like to start with some warnings, so I will use in my remarks some heavily charged words, revolutionary even, like climate, women. I may even talk about win-win partnerships. And also a spoiler alert, you will hear at the end of my presentation, I’m really proud to be European, even more these days than never. And so the whole presentation, we’ll be talking about the role of Europe and what are the strengths of the European Union in today’s world and as we shape the world of tomorrow.
Because as you know very well, the shareholders of thae European Investment Bank are the 27 member states. They speak 24 different languages. They are governed by different parties and coalitions from all over the ideological spectrum, and yet we manage to bring things together and to agree. We share priorities that are very important for us:
- An environment of freedom and peace for our countries;
- Stability;
- Certainty;
- Opportunities for growth for our businesses:
Social infrastructures. That means good, affordable housing, access to quality healthcare, top-notch education, an inclusive society where people are confident about a better future for them and for their children.
- Solid international partnerships built on mutual respect with win-win outcomes.
- And of course, all of these in a liveable planet where we try to ensure that future generations are going to be able to also thrive.
And this, what I just described together with the rule of law, is the basics, isn’t it? Just the basics. But it shows how the European Union is united in its diversity.
The European Investment Bank is a true success story of European unity. As you already said, it’s the largest multilateral development institution in the world with a balance sheet of close to 600 billion euros, an AAA credit rating, around 90 billion euros in annual investment – 90% of it is inside the European Union, but 10%, and that’s around 8 to 9 billion euros, is outside the EU.
Last year, as I took over at the helm of the European Investment Bank, we worked on a strategic roadmap with eight key priorities, which were unanimously endorsed by the Member States, and they agreed unanimously to put as priority No. 1 supporting the green transition, consolidating the role of the European Investment Bank as the climate bank.
Last year alone, 60% of our financing went to supporting the green transition in Europe and beyond. And really at the European Union and at the European Investment Bank, we see this transition as a key driver for Europe’s competitiveness, security, stability, strategic autonomy, because from the European perspective, it’s a no-brainer.
We cannot continue to rely on fossil fuel producers, so it’s a matter of security and strategic autonomy now. It’s not only a matter of nice-to-have thinking about future generations. This transition is also helping drive homegrown innovation and industrial excellence, developing the breakthrough technologies and supporting European champions that are investing in energy security, in the decarbonisation of heavy industry and providing high-quality jobs for the future.
It is also a no-brainer from a broader perspective, because we know very clearly that every euro, every dollar invested in prevention and adaptation to climate change is actually saving five to seven euros, or dollars, when we are talking about costs – repair and the cost of reconstruction. After one of these climate-originated disasters hit our countries.
Sustainable finance can also contribute to deepening Europe’s capital markets. As you probably know ... you don’t have to know … but let me tell you, the European Investment Bank was the first issuer of a green bond back in 2007. So, we have been pioneering this market, which is alive and kicking. Actually only a couple of weeks ago, we issued the first bond under the European Green Bond Standard. We had a 3 billion euro issuance that was very heavily oversubscribed. When I say over oversubscribed, I mean 13 times oversubscribed.
So, it seems like financial markets actually are betting on this green transition and green investments as something that makes eminent sense. It’s not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do, to continue to proceed in this direction.
This issuance is also providing a European safe asset. I know, Federico, you’re very keen on having this discussion. Well, investors seem to be thinking that the European institutions issuances are providing a European safe asset, which is also contributing to more integrated capital markets on the other side of the Atlantic.
In the last year, there have been a lot of high-level reports talking about Europe’s competitiveness. What are the key drivers for Europe’s competitiveness? And we can summarise that with four words:
- Market integration including capital markets, I already mentioned it;
- Large-scale investment;
- Simplification; and
- I would add the fourth one, which is international partnerships.
These are the four key areas where the European Investment Bank is also putting our money where our mouth is, trying to support these policy drivers inside the EU.
I want to mention these international partnerships because obviously this is the week of the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, so this is going to be our top priority this week. How to reinforce Europe’s international partnerships for peace and prosperity. The bedrock of our prosperity and our well-being and our security is actually having the multilateral system, which is based on rules and based on win-win outcomes and cooperative partnerships.
This has served us well in the last 80 years. It has served the European Union. It has certainly even served more the interest of the United States, and it should be also the basis for our cooperation going forward. We joined forces 80 years ago to build this multilateral framework. We have been supporting this rules-based environment, and I am deeply convinced we should also continue to cooperate to make sure that the new world order, which is in the making, is also based on a set of rules and a set of multilateral institutions. And instead of creating new ones, we should build on those that have proven to be really strong and allowed us to bring prosperity throughout the world.
One of the key areas that we will be working on, and that we will be talking about in the course of the Spring Meetings, is Ukraine. I just participated in an event at the Council on Foreign Relations. We had an exchange with the finance minister of Ukraine, Sergii Marchenko, and we were talking about the support that the European Union is providing to Ukraine at this point in time.
The European Investment Bank is probably the main investment partner to the Ukrainian government. That means right now financing key infrastructures, energy infrastructures, water, transport infrastructures, rebuilding schools and universities, such as this one.
It is also building shelters to protect the kids so that they can continue to have a life which is as normal as possible in these absolutely extraordinary times. This means building the resilience of the country, and I hope that very soon this resilience will allow us to go into the reconstruction phase.
But I think this support for Ukraine, which I am sure is going to be very strongly supported by the meetings of the Friends of Ukraine that will take place this week as we do at every meeting of the IMF and the World Bank here in Washington. This support is signalling the power and the importance of these international partnerships to us. And I think also the determination of the EU to respond, to adapt to the shifting geopolitical landscape.
Let me finish precisely on this note. There is a shifting geopolitical landscape, and there are common challenges that have a global nature.
If there’s one thing we have discovered in the last years, maybe haven’t discovered it but we have really seen it in our daily lives, is that for example pandemics, they can cross oceans. They don’t stop at political borders. It’s the same when we’re talking about climate change. It’s the same when we’re talking about our shared security. It is the same when we’re talking about financial stability.
These are global challenges that need to be tackled through cooperative infrastructures, cooperative institutions, through strong partnerships, starting with a transatlantic partnership, which is probably the largest strategic partnership in the world that has preserved and been so important for the global order until today.
Let me just conclude by emphasising that from the European point of view, we have no hesitation. We will stand by the foundations of this partnership. We will continue to defend a rules-based global order and the institutions that underpin it, that we build together. The World Bank, the IMF, the principles of the UN Charter, the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization, these are some of the most important partners to the European Investment Bank and to the European Union, which we will continue to support going forward.
- We will continue to strive to bring down barriers to trade and to promote open economies, open trade. The European Union is the world’s biggest network of free trade agreements, which we keep expanding on a daily basis, most recently by concluding negotiations with the MERCOSUR countries. But there are a number of ongoing negotiations, which are surely going to continue to reinforce our partnerships around the world.
- We will continue to bring strong partnerships with emerging economies and countries around the world, because we believe that stability and shared economic prosperity are mutually reinforcing.
- We will continue to invest in women’s empowerment because investing in women is investing in societies, stability and peace around the world.
- And we will continue to support the technological leadership and excellence of European companies, including through European Investment Bank Group investments.
So in a nutshell, what does this mean? It means to continue to build bridges, to turn challenges into opportunities, to provide certainty in this extremely volatile and uncertain world, and to remain a beacon of human rights and values for peoples around the globe.
This is Europe, and in a nutshell, I’m proud to be European. Thank you very much.