Skip to content
Adopted text

Financial activities of the European Investment Bank - annual report 2023

TA-9-2024-0107 · P9_TA(2024)0107 · PE757.274

Official HTML ↗ PDF DOCX
✦ In shortFull text
✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 18 Oct 2026

Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text. The paragraph links open the paragraph a statement rests on — check the text itself before relying on it.

Parliament's resolution reviews the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group's 2023 activities and sets out what it wants the bank to do. It calls for a capital increase, more support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), innovation and digitalisation, and a stronger social dimension in lending. It asks the EIB to keep climate action central: meet the 1,5 degree pathway, apply Paris alignment rules to clients and intermediaries, protect biodiversity and back REPowerEU. It welcomes the EU for Ukraine initiative, seeks higher EU budget guarantees and asks the EIB to reform its eligibility list for defence-related financing. It calls for more transparency, accountability to Parliament, stronger anti-tax-fraud rules and better gender balance in the EIB's workforce.

Key points

  1. Reiterates the call for a capital increase so the EIB can provide more long-term repayable support and innovative instruments, while keeping its AAA credit rating.
  2. Calls on the EIB to address regional imbalances and asks the Commission to assess whether InvestEU financing is geographically balanced, especially for smaller member states.
  3. Calls on the EIB to support social infrastructure and welfare projects, weight social benefits more in appraisals and prioritise projects for vulnerable people and citizen-led initiatives.
  4. Welcomes the EIB meeting its target of at least half of resources for climate action and expects the 2024 Climate Bank Roadmap review to align it with the 1,5 degree pathway and climate neutrality by 2050.
  5. Welcomes the increase in EIB support to REPowerEU to EUR 45 billion in loans and equity financing and expects Paris alignment exemptions to be exceptional and temporary.
  6. Requires corporate clients to publish credible decarbonisation plans and expects the EIB to work only with financial intermediaries with credible plans by 2025 at the latest, without harming SME access to finance.
  7. Calls on the EIB to lower the minimum loan amount for just transition projects and to intensify cooperation with national and regional financial institutions.
  8. Welcomes the EU for Ukraine initiative and calls for an increase in EU budget guarantees to the EIB for operations in Ukraine and the Global South.
  9. Calls on the EIB to enhance support to the Strategic European Security Initiative and the European defence industry, and to reform its eligibility list so ammunition and military equipment beyond dual use are no longer excluded.
  10. Expects EIB Global to stay aligned with EU external objectives, involve local stakeholders and contribute to the target of 85 % of new external actions supporting gender equality by 2025.
  11. Calls on the EIB to adopt a human rights strategy, conduct human rights impact assessments and develop policies on human rights defenders and reprisals.
  12. Calls for more timely project disclosure, an interinstitutional agreement with Parliament, stronger anti-tax-fraud measures and efforts to reach gender parity in senior positions.

Who is affected

  • The EIB and EIF: the resolution sets out what Parliament expects them to finance, disclose and reform.
  • SMEs and start-ups: the EIB Group is asked to simplify procedures, provide growth capital and increase venture capital support.
  • Corporate clients and financial intermediaries: they must publish credible decarbonisation plans compatible with the 1,5 degree pathway.
  • Ukraine and EU frontline countries: the EIB is asked to expand reconstruction financing and investment in infrastructure and border management.
  • Recipient communities in developing countries: EIB Global projects should involve local stakeholders and respect human rights and free, prior and informed consent.

Figures and deadlines

  • EUR 1 trillion a year in investments needed in the EU to achieve its climate targets.
  • InvestEU's EUR 26,2 billion guarantee is expected to mobilise more than EUR 372 billion over 2021-2027.
  • EUR 45 billion in EIB loans and equity financing for REPowerEU projects.
  • EUR 16,35 billion in total investment for SMEs and mid-caps provided by the EIB Group in 2022.
  • Almost EUR 20 billion in annual net signatures for debt support to SMEs between 2010 and 2020.
  • Over EUR 10 billion delivered by EIB Global in 2022 through the NDICI-Global Europe investment window.
  • At least one third of the EUR 300 billion in investments to be generated by the end of 2027.
  • 85 % of all new external actions to support gender equality by 2025.

Legal basis: Articles 15, 126, 174, 175, 177, 208, 209, 271, 308 and 309 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and Protocol No 5 on the Statute of the EIB.