European Investment Bank (EIB) President Nadia Calviño met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée Palace today, accompanied by EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle. With European Parliament elections just a few weeks away, she discussed major EU priorities with President Macron for around an hour.
Key topics of this wide-ranging conversation were the EIB’s current and future strategic priorities and its support for France.
They spoke of the important and growing role of the EIB — as the European Union’s long-term investment bank — in funding Europe’s high-priority structural projects. These include support for the green transition, clean and renewable energy, and industrial decarbonisation, and investments strengthening EU security and strategic autonomy in key sectors like semi-conductors and electric batteries, as well as innovation.
They also reaffirmed their support for Ukraine and for financing its reconstruction, and highlighted the role of the EIB in Africa, which receives more EIB funding than any other continent outside the European Union.
The last topic of discussion was EIB investment in France. France benefited from the second highest amount of EIB financing in 2023, receiving €12 billion (16% more than in the previous year). Around 100 projects were supported in a broad range of sectors such as climate action and environment, innovation, reindustrialisation, clean urban and regional transport and commuter rail lines, schools and public facilities, energy-efficient renovation of social housing and public buildings, and more.
Almost two-thirds of EIB investment projects in France last year were related to climate action and environment, while a third were connected with research and development.
President Macron stressed the vital role played by the EIB in boosting investment in key sectors for European competitiveness, due to EU Member States’ limited fiscal and debt capacity. In this regard, both President Macron and President Calviño also highlighted the importance of making progress on the capital markets union and better EU integration in this domain, with a view to mobilising the financing needed for the various green, digital and technological transitions.
“I welcome these in-depth and very constructive exchanges with President Emmanuel Macron,” said EIB President Nadia Calviño. “We agree that we need more Europe, enabling us to join forces to face today’s challenges in security and defence, climate, and industrial and technological competitiveness. We are stronger together, with all 27 member countries working as one. This is the message we wanted to send, just a few weeks before such crucial elections for the European Union.”
