The president of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Nadia Calviño, responded this Thursday with a message of caution to calls from the European Commission to take more risks and make a greater contribution to the Union's political priorities, in line with the demands raised by some capitals, such as Paris, in the face of the new mandate. “It is time to roll up our sleeves and use the enormous potential of our largest bank,” “take more risks,” claimed the vice president of the Community Executive, Maroš Šefčovič, on the final day of the institution's annual forum held this week in Luxembourg.
“The EIB has had a very important role in Europe, but it will have even more,” said Calviño in response to the message he distills from the debates of these days and the one he hopes the European Economy Ministers will convey to him when they meet. end of the month in Ghent, in favor of the bank “doing more.” The institution is committed to accompanying European political priorities but with a clear red line, its president stressed in a meeting with a small group of correspondents: the maintenance of its highest credit rating. “The protection of triple A is an absolute priority for us. Only with these strong solvency conditions can we have attractive financial conditions and be able to lend to states or companies under good conditions,” stressed the former vice president of the Spanish Government.
This Thursday in Luxembourg, facing the new political cycle that will begin with the European elections in June, Šefčovič, vice president of the Commission, set three priority tasks for the new president of the EIB. First, create a division to advance projects in the critical commodities sector that “takes more risks than a normal bank,” she said. “Given its importance to Europe's economic security, sometimes political considerations must come before benefits.” She also recommended the launch of a specific division to support the modernization of the European electricity grid and enable the European exchange of electricity produced by renewable sources. And finally, Šefčovič asked, “restore technological neutrality” and be “less dogmatic” when financing energy projects, opening the door to supporting nuclear sector projects that can help decarbonize the European economy.
“I am sure that these two issues, defense and nuclear energy, will be addressed in Ecofin” and, in parallel, by European leaders when they define the priorities of the next political cycle, commented Calviño without taking a position before listening. what the governments, owners of the EIB after all, propose. Especially contentious is the idea of financing defense projects, which countries such as France, Poland or Estonia defend but which, according to some specialists, could jeopardize the bank's credit rating.
