EU Shareholders Greenlight Record €100 Billion EIB Financing Ceiling to Power Defence, Energy, and Tech

EU Shareholders Greenlight Record €100 Billion EIB Financing Ceiling to Power Defence, Energy, and Tech

(IN BRIEF) EU Finance Ministers, acting as shareholders of the EIB Group, have endorsed a record €100 billion 2025 financing ceiling, boosting defence lending to 3.5 percent of the total and dedicating over €11 billion to grid and storage investments. The EIB and EIF Boards have approved the TechEU programme—a €70 billion push for EU tech leadership—and its first cleantech instruments under the Clean Industrial Deal, including guarantees for grid components, corporate PPAs, cleantech SMEs, and wind manufacturers. A €12.8 billion package this week covers energy, water, education, and global renewable partnerships, alongside financing for Lithuania’s Rūdninkai military base. The EIF also launched guarantees to support trade with Ukraine and greenfield infrastructure funds. Czech Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura assumes the EIB Board chairmanship, and Katja Pluto becomes Audit Committee Chair.

(PRESS RELEASE) LUXEMBOURG, 20-Jun-2025 — /EuropaWire/ — The shareholders of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group—the 27 EU Member States—have unanimously approved an unprecedented €100 billion financing ceiling for 2025, reinforcing Europe’s strategic priorities in defence, energy security, and technological innovation. At their meeting in Luxembourg, EU Finance Ministers on the EIB Board of Governors endorsed a mid-year review of the Bank’s operational plan that raises the cap on security and defence lending to 3.5 percent of total financing and allocates over €11 billion to modernising power grids and energy storage across Europe.

Earlier this week, the EIB and its subsidiary, the European Investment Fund (EIF), ratified new flagship initiatives, including the TechEU programme—Europe’s largest-ever innovation push—aimed at securing EU leadership in areas such as supercomputing, AI, digital infrastructure, critical raw materials, offshore wind, health, advanced materials, and security technologies. TechEU will deploy up to €70 billion in EIB Group equity, quasi-equity, loans, and guarantees between 2025 and 2027, with the goal of catalysing at least €250 billion in private investment.

Under the umbrella of the EU Clean Industrial Deal, the Bank approved the first wave of cleantech instruments:

• A €1.5 billion counter-guarantee facility via partner banks to bolster grid component manufacturers and accelerate renewable integration.
• A €500 million pilot for counter-guarantees on corporate power purchase agreements, helping larger and mid-sized firms secure long-term clean power contracts.
• A €250 million CleantechEU guarantee scheme to provide liquidity and working capital for innovative SMEs in green technologies.
• An additional €1.5 billion top-up to support European wind turbine and component producers.

The EIB also green-lit a landmark project financing the construction of the Rūdninkai military base in Lithuania—strengthening NATO’s regional posture—and endorsed financing packages totalling €12.8 billion this week, spanning solar photovoltaics in Romania, water infrastructure in Ireland and the Netherlands, electricity grids in Germany, education facilities in Finland, and global partnerships in renewable energy (Colombia), sustainable waterways (Nigeria), and sanitation (Tanzania).

On the EIF side, the Board approved a pan-European guarantee scheme with Germany’s export credit agency to back German exporters trading with Ukraine, as well as two guarantee lines with Ukrainian banks to unlock financing for over 1,500 local businesses. The EIF also committed to four infrastructure funds targeting greenfield data centres, wireless and fibre build-out, shipping decarbonisation, sustainable mobility, and student housing.

New leadership appointments were confirmed: Czech Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura succeeds as Chair of the EIB Board of Governors, while Katja Pluto takes over as Chair of the Audit Committee. Outgoing Chair, Bulgarian Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova, lauded the Bank’s expanding role in safeguarding Europe’s security, green and digital transitions, and economic resilience.

The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. The EIB finances investments in eight core priorities that support EU policy objectives: climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, cohesion, agriculture and the bioeconomy, social infrastructure, the capital markets union and a stronger Europe in a more peaceful and prosperous world.

The EIB Group, which also includes the European Investment Fund (EIF), signed nearly €89 billion in new financing for over 900 high-impact projects in 2024, boosting Europe’s competitiveness and security.

By fostering market integration and mobilising investment, the Group supported a record of over €100 billion in new investment for Europe’s energy security in 2024 and mobilised €110 billion in growth capital for startups, scale-ups and European pioneers. Approximately half of the EIB’s financing within the EU targets cohesion regions, where per-capita income is below the EU average, while almost 60% of annual EIB Group investments supports climate action and environmental sustainability.

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SOURCE: European Investment Bank