The European Investment Bank will step up its annual lending by more than 40 percent, to around EUR 70bn

29-4-2013 — /europawire.eu/ — The EIB is one of “five major building blocks” for economic recovery and sustainability according to an editorial article published today in the International Herald Tribune and co-signed by Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for economic and monetary affairs; Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Dutch Finance Minister and Eurogroup President; Klaus Regling, CEO of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Jorg Asmussen, European Central Bank (ECB) executive board member and EIB President Werner Hoyer.

They said “to provide the investment that is crucial for restarting growth and creating jobs, the European Investment Bank, the EU’s public bank, will significantly increase its lending activities.”

The article continued: “all EU countries participated in a EUR 10bn capital increase, which will mobilize additional investments by the EIB of about EUR 60bn, prompting subsequent public and private investments of up to EUR 180bn over the next three years. As a result the EIB will step up its annual lending by more than 40 percent, to around EUR 70bn. Furthermore, member states agreed to use half of the EU’s budget resources up to 2020 to support growth and competitiveness.”

Publication preceded a discussion by the five authors at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC on Thursday 18^th April: “The Way Forward for the Eurozone and Europe: A Conversation with European Policymakers”.

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