The European Investment Bank (EIB) plans to pump more money into a fund backing companies developing new defence technologies as the EU pushes to become more independent and competitive, the Luxembourg-based EU institution’s chief said Tuesday.
EIB President Nadia Calviño opened the bank’s annual conference in Luxembourg outlining its plans for this year. Its projects include expanding its €75 million commitment to the Defence Equity Facility, which alongside €100 million in borrowed EU money is seeding the work of European technology companies through next year.
The defence funding facility involves the bank’s affiliated European Investment Fund serving as anchor investor for equity investments into European defence companies with the intent of attracting further capital from private funds.
Calviño did not specify the size of the expanded funding during her speech opening the EIB Group Forum in Kirchberg. The EIB plans to announce another investment into a pan-European venture capital fund dedicated to deep tech and defence technologies later this week, she said.
“As the reshaping of the geopolitical context enters a new phase, Europe has the capacity, the resources – the financial, diplomatic, and economic muscle – to lead and contribute to the reshaping of the global order as a beacon of stability, security and values,” Calviño said.
Only last year the EIB loosened rules that allowed it to finance more defence projects by lending or investing for military barracks and storage, drones and helicopters, radars and satellites, de-mining and de-contamination and space.
Five percent of the EIB’s total EU-directed financing, more than €4 billion, is now channeled into defence and military activities. Calviño said.
EIB Group also plans to expand its initiative to uncover and sustain European tech champions and introduce new instruments to strengthen Europe’s venture capital ecosystem, the bank said.
“Investment is never merely financial,” Luxembourg’s Grand Duke Guillaume said in welcoming conference attendees.
“It is strategic. It is human. And above all, it is a collective endeavor. The great thinkers who shaped the foundations of Europe’s values, our economic principles and the functioning of our societies, remind us that true investment extends far beyond capital. Investment in people, in knowledge, in the institutions that safeguard our freedoms is the bedrock of a stable, prosperous and peaceful society,” he said.