The story and the impact

EIB Global turns the European Union’s goals on sustainability, development, climate action and digitalisation into real projects and products. No single institution can meet the tremendous need for investment, nor bridge all the knowledge gaps that make projects successful. Partnerships are the key. Developing countries require more than €2 trillion in extra investment each year through a multitude of projects to make their societies sustainable. We must all adapt our way of working and be open to cooperating and learning in the face of this great task.

EIB Global aims at increased investment impact, which you can read about in the companion volume of this report, prepared by our economists. But it also represents an explicit signal that the European Union is setting out a clear stance in global development, especially in turbulent times caused by the Russian attack on our close neighbour, Ukraine. Every project carried out by EIB Global answers a vital economic need — and it promotes the values of freedom, human dignity and the rule of law in a world that is less stable than we used to believe. EIB Global’s structure responds to this need, because it is designed to foster strong, focused partnerships within and through Team Europe, together with the European Commission and all European Union members.

EIB Global helps us invest in more solutions to our planetary problems, discover and finance new technologies that counter these issues, and galvanise energy and ingenuity from the private sector. It promotes more technology and expertise in more than 160 countries around the world. In climate action, for example, innovation means that some countries may miss the polluting stage of industrial development entirely, leapfrogging to a green economy. Just as climate change does not stop at national borders, so too prosperity anywhere in the world feeds through our global exchanges and comes back to Europe. Sustainable growth anywhere is a global win in the struggle against our top challenges.

Over the past ten years, the European Investment Bank has invested more than €70 billion outside the European Union. In 2021, more than half of our lending around the world supported climate action or sustainability. All the projects we financed are promoting development opportunities and the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. By increasing presence on the ground, working with EU delegations and European and local partners, EIB Global will have a key role in major European programmes, such as the European Commission’s Global Gateway initiative to invest in quality connections with the world.

From Colombia to Cambodia, to India and Malawi and Serbia, this report shows how the EIB stands ready more than ever to join with partners worldwide, driving the prosperous, peaceful future Europeans are championing.

Werner Hoyer

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