President Calviño at the Committee of the Region's plenary debate

Good morning dear President, dear honorable members of the Committee of the Regions, it's a great pleasure to speak to you today.

I'm sure that you're all very familiar with the European Investment Bank, that you all know that we have a very large €600 billion balance sheet, we’re probably the largest multilateral development bank in the world. You also should be aware that we are probably the only local bank for the whole of Europe.

I was just discussing with the President how we are financing projects that improve lives in every single region, every city around our Union. From Valletta, right in the south, to Riga in the north, we are financing the construction of affordable and sustainable housing, sustainable mobility, energy efficiency, wastewater treatment, also hospitals and schools, drinking water, also from Brno in the East, to Lisbon in the West - or, I should say, to the Azores in the West.

We have annual investments of around €88 billion, of which 90% take place inside the European Union. And almost half of that investment is destined for projects in cohesion regions, in less-developed regions of our Union.

I could spend the whole session just talking about numbers, but actually, this is not at all about numbers. This is about projects on the ground, a place-based policy that helps citizens and companies, and especially small and medium-sized companies throughout the EU, with the big share and a big attention focused on our less-developed regions.

I would like to devote these introductory remarks, not only to introduce the Bank, and not only to talk about what we are doing, but rather to look on the way forward, look to the future. What are the opportunities for our regions and cities to benefit from our financing support?

Let me first of all reassure you, our plan is to continue to devote almost half of the financing support to the regions that are less-developed, those areas where we can make the bigger difference.

Likewise, we want to devote more than half of our investment to making the green transition a European success. Because one of the key challenges that we have ahead, is how to make Climate, Cohesion and Competitiveness, these three Cs, three sides of the same key challenge for Europe: how to make the green transition a success. And here, regional, and local authorities have a key role to play, because they are actually implementing the vast majority of the investments that drive the green transition.

And together, with these three Cs, we need a fourth one, Confidence. European citizens need the confidence that they can have equal opportunities, no matter they live, they were born, they work, or they study. Because talent is equally distributed throughout our territory, but opportunities are not. And it is our top priority as European institutions to bring opportunities on the ground where talent is, so that people can remain where they want to live and drive their projects and their dreams forward.

And this means investing also in social infrastructures. I know there is a very keen interest in this session about housing, a top priority for the vast majority of member states. It is also one of our priorities going forward as the European Investment Bank: how to make sure that we ensure that citizens have access to affordable housing, which is also contributing to fighting climate change.

Access to opportunities is key to our prosperity, our security and democracy. And this not only involves investments inside the Union, also outside the Union, starting with Ukraine, where right now the European Investment Bank is working on the preparation for the winter, the Emergency Energy Rescue Plan, which has just been approved by our Board. And we have identified between €400 million and €600 million of investment to reinforce the capacity of citizens in Ukraine to withstand the winter. Because our security does not only involve investing inside the EU, also making sure that we support Ukraine through these difficult times.

Before closing - and I will be very happy to address your questions and comments - two ideas, two points I would like to draw your attention to:

The first one is the need to leverage more efficiently the resources of the European budget. And this means streamlining our mandates, simplifying our processes and requirements. And I know this resonates very much with this board. I think that you will all be with me, dear colleagues of the Committee of the Regions, to call for less red tape and more action. I know that we can partner, and we are absolutely aligned on this.

And my second point is to try to address one of the weaknesses that have been identified - amongst others – by the Letta and the Draghi reports, which is to ensure that ideas, companies, and technologies that are born in the European Union can remain in Europe. This has to do with building deeper and larger capital markets in Europe that finance the scaling up of talented innovators.

You maybe don't know, there was a recent report by the European Central Bank that shows that in 2022, 58 founders of “unicorns” in the United States – start-ups that went on to be valued over $1 billion – had been born in the euro area. Well, we need to make sure, as I said a moment ago, that we bring opportunity where talent is, that we nurture European talent and we make sure that our innovators, our technologies, our leading companies can be born, grow, scale up, and contribute to Europe's competitiveness.

And I'm quite confident that if we continue to work together on the basis of three principles - that's unity, solidarity, and determination - like we did when responding to the pandemic, we will succeed. If we keep our Union together, we will succeed in making the green transition a European success, in having a strong voice in the new global order that is in the making, and bringing prosperity and a better future for citizens throughout the whole EU.

Let me leave you with this idea and I'm very happy to address your questions and comments.

Thank you.