To promote Europe’s security and defence capabilities, EIB President Nadia Calviño introduced the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group’s Security and Defence Industry Action Plan.
The plan was welcomed at the meeting of EU Finance Ministers (ECOFIN) in Luxembourg on Friday, April 12. The action plan comes after two months of intensive engagement with the bank’s shareholders, key stakeholders, and markets.
President Calviño, speaking on this step, said that extending this support will safeguard the financing capacity and highest environmental, social, and governance standards of the EU.
The EIB will further adapt its policy and framework in order to lend it to the security and defence industry while safeguarding its financing capacity while acting upon the European Council’s recent mandate policy to further improve European defence firms’ access to finance while keeping the EIB Group’s financing capacity in mind.
It includes pivotal measures to redefine dual-use projects and extend EIB credit lines to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and innovative startups operating in security and defence.
The initiative will start with the establishment of a task force and a ‘one-stop shop’ to streamline EIB Group processes from May 1. With this, the investment process will be sped up, giving access to the €6 billion earmarked for projects in this sector.
A major shift in policy includes waiving the requirement that dual-use projects must derive more than 50% of their expected revenues from civilian use. This aligns the EIB Group with public financial institutions that similarly focus on equipment and infrastructure serving both defensive military or police and civilian needs.
It emphasises strengthening cooperation with the European Defense Agency and other key partners to maximise impact, synergies, and complementarity.
This initiative aims to expedite investments and grant easier access to EIB Group funding for clients in Europe’s security and defence sectors under the Strategic European Security Initiative (SESI).
Postponed to discuss the concrete proposals this month, President Calviño’s top strategic priority to increase EIB Group support for Europe’s peace and security already got support from the EU Finance Ministers and the European Parliament during their February meeting earlier this year.
The strategic move is aligned with the EIB Group and public financial institutions that limit their financing to equipment and infrastructure and serve both defensive military or police and civilian needs.
