EIB President Nadia Calviño’s keynote address at the European Parliament Financial Services Forum's event on "Funding the Future of Europe."
Dear friends,
Greetings from Luxembourg!
I am sorry that I cannot be with you this evening in person.
The location of your gathering is rather fitting to discuss the future of Europe. You see, almost a century ago, also at a time of great uncertainty for this continent, Europe’s greatest minds – Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Marie Curie and others – gathered close to these same grounds, for the 5th Solvay Conference, which laid the foundations of our current understanding of physics. The work of these great Europeans became the pillar of everything that moves our world today – from GPS systems to quantum computers, and from lasers to MRI scanners.
It is also a reminder of the biggest challenge that we face today, as we discuss priorities for the future: How to harvest together the potential of ideas, how to turn innovation into concrete projects, and scale them up to improve lives, create jobs and lead Europe and the world toward a more sustainable growth model.
This is the role that I see for the European Investment Bank Group: to provide the financing tools that will allow innovation to flourish, the funding needed to bring opportunities where talent is, in every corner of the European Union.
In other words, the EIB is more than a Bank. It is a formidable instrument to support EU’s economic resilience and productivity growth.
To achieve this goal, we have a clear Strategic Roadmap of eight core investment priorities, which has been unanimously endorsed by our shareholders – all 27 governments of the European Union. The Roadmap was developed after extensive consultation with stakeholders and partners, including the European Parliament, where I had the opportunity to discuss it when I addressed its Plenary earlier this year.
The same priorities about where we need to invest for a more sustainable future are also reflected in the political guidelines of the new European Commission (an “investment Commission” as president von der Leyen has called it), which will soon start its work, subject to a positive vote at the European Parliament.
There is of course, an ongoing discussion, about how to marshal the vast resources necessary. Again, there is no shortage of innovative ideas, like the seminal report on competitiveness by Mario Draghi.
What I can tell you with certainty, is that the EIB will play a strategic role in this collective effort to make the green and digital transitions a European success. And I expect to continue working closely with the European Parliament to this end.
Very soon, I will present some concrete proposals to EU finance ministers about how the EIB Group can support the development of a deeper capital markets union with new products that will help channel savings into productive investment. The Parliament’s input as we develop these initiatives will be valuable, as always.
Dear friends,
The experience of the last five years – from the pandemic to the war – showed that the foundation of our resilience lies in well-coordinated policies and joint funding tools.
This unity in the face of shared challenges will be even more important in the years ahead, as we navigate the uncharted waters of the future.
But I am confident that the spirit of solidarity and determination that held this Union together for so long, will keep showing us the way forward.
Thank you.