2017 Highlights

The European Investment Bank Group is the world’s biggest multilateral borrower and lender, financing and advising on sustainable investments across the globe. As the EU bank, it is owned by the EU Member States and represents their interests in implementing EU policy.

The Bank marks its sixtieth anniversary in 2018. Its activity in 2017, which you will read about in this report, demonstrated the EIB Group’s ability to respond to major new challenges:

• Throughout the year, the Bank worked to expand the reach of its Economic Resilience Initiative, which is designed to increase financing for the EU’s Southern Neighbourhood and the Western Balkans by EUR 6 billion over five years.

• The European Fund for Strategic Investments, under which the Bank makes investments backed by an EU budget guarantee to boost Europe’s economy, surpassed original expectations, when the European Parliament voted in December to extend and increase the facility. This takes EFSI, a part of the Investment Plan for Europe created in response to the market failures revealed by the financial crisis a decade ago, to a projected EUR 500 billion of investment supported by the end of 2020.