The lending capacity of the European Investment Bank (EIB) will be raised by €30 billion. The funds, which are to be used by 2011, will specifically fund small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the ministers decided during an informal meeting in Nice on Saturday (13 September). The €30 billion engagement will roughly double the bank's standard commitments to small businesses.
This is one of the measures announced by finance ministers to demonstrate that Europe is not simply adopting "a wait-and-see policy" in the face of the international financial crisis, according to French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, speaking to journalists at the final conference of the informal Council meeting.
The EIB is the investment arm of the European institutions and its aim is to support the development of infrastructure projects within the EU. Its budget is provided mainly by member states, which are shareholders of the bank. The EIB's support for SMEs has been so far limited.
During the two-day meeting, the EIB was at the centre of the ministers' attention. Following a proposal from Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti, the Council told the bank to establish a working group to explore ways to better coordinate European investment in infrastructure, mainly in the energy sector. Work on energy matters "could go ahead very quickly," said EIB President Philippe Maystadt.
The working group should involve investors from national institutions such as the French Caisse des Depots, the Italian Cassa Depositi e Prestiti or the Hungarian Development Bank. The participation of these institutions sparked suggestions that the aim was to create a kind of European sovereign fund similar to those in Russia or China, which are increasingly used to acquire strategic economic assets abroad.
But EIB President Philippe Maystadt ruled out this option. "Our current statute prevents us from acquiring participations in companies," he said. It is also a question of money: "Sovereign funds use enormous own resources which the EIB does not have," Maystadt told journalists after the meeting.
Indeed, the Lisbon Treaty, if it enters into force, would allow the EIB to invest in companies in order to cover its lending exposures but further changes would be needed to turn the bank into a real sovereign fund.
The working group was nevertheless presented as a step in this direction and attracted the unanimous support of member states, in particular Spain and Italy, which made the proposal. Both Lagarde and Joaquin Almunia, the EU commissioner in charge of economic and monetary affairs, welcomed the establishment of the group.
