The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed two advisory service agreements with the BPI and Santander to support them in identifying and financing climate action and environmental sustainability projects.
These agreements fall under the scope of the signing of loan and guarantee operations with the EIB to finance the green transition of small businesses and mid-caps, and energy-efficient building renovations.
The advisory support aims to raise awareness of and implement the EIB's climate and environmental sustainability requirements, which are in line with the EU taxonomy. The advisory services will also support banks’ capacity, procedures and operational tools for developing green products and promoting best practice for reporting the impact of the projects and monitoring the investments that promote the green transition.
“We are delighted to sign these agreements that promote the deployment of sustainable investments and contribute to Europe’s green transition,” said EIB Head of Financial Intermediary Advisory Frank Lee EIB. “Our role is to enable financial intermediaries to expand their green finance portfolio by supporting investment capacity building and providing tools that support the assessment of green eligibility and implementation of investment projects.”
These services are part of Green Gateway, a comprehensive advisory programme designed to support financial institutions in accelerating lending for green projects and are associated with tools such as the Green Eligibility Checker.
InvestEU Advisory Platform
The Green Gateway programme is part of the InvestEU Advisory Hub, which provides advisory support to public and private project promoters in the EU for the development of investment projects, and to financial intermediaries and project promoters to enhance their capacity to implement financing and investment operations.
The Advisory Hub is one component of the InvestEU Programme, which has the aim of triggering a new wave of investments — more than €372 billion — using an EU budget guarantee. The InvestEU Programme, which also includes the InvestEU Fund and the InvestEU portal, aims to give an additional boost to investment, innovation and job creation in Europe over the period 2021-2027.
Background information
About the EIB
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. It finances sound investments that further EU policy objectives. EIB projects bolster competitiveness, drive innovation, promote sustainable development, enhance social and territorial cohesion, and support a just and swift transition to climate neutrality.
The European Investment Bank Group (EIB Group), consisting of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF), reported total financing signatures in Portugal of €2.1 billion in 2023, approximately half of which went to supporting small and medium companies (SMEs) and mid-caps. Overall, the EIB Group signed €88 billion in new financing in 2023.