Debate: Control of the financial activities of the European Investment Bank - annual report
Date: WEDNESDAY, 18 JANUARY 2023
Speaker: Kris Peeters
Language: EN

First of all, there was the suggestion as to what more we can do in education and the educational sector. You know that we are already the largest lender when you speak about education and education investments. Since 2002, we have invested EUR 2 billion each year and that is in the sector of education infrastructure, research centres, but also vocational and professional training as well as, for example, student housing and student loans. But we shall take the suggestions and proposals into account and see what we can do more in the future.  Secondly, about small and medium—sized enterprises – several Members of this Parliament intervened about that – I can assure you that small and medium—sized enterprises are, and remain, a priority for the Bank. I’ve already mentioned the EUR 45 billion that we invested in 2021. You know that also we provide some loans to banks, and the purpose of these loans is that the banks provide, in their turn, some loans to small and medium—sized enterprises. Also I mentioned the very popular product or instrument that we deliver for small and medium—sized enterprises in the sector of innovation – the venture debt product – which is also very important to support small and medium—sized enterprises. And, like the Commissioner said, with InvestEU we can continue our efforts to provide small and medium—sized enterprises with this kind of products and instruments. I think also that it was mentioned by one of the Members of the European Parliament that we must of course think what we can do more in certain areas like the space area, where we need, of course, guarantees when we provide this kind of instruments. I hope that also the European Commission can support us when we talk about that kind of investments in very risky sectors like space. Coming to the climate and REpowerEU, I think that everyone underlined that we have put on the table EUR 30 billion extra to stimulate renewable energy, energy efficiency, innovation and so on. I can assure you, ladies and gentlemen, that we do not finance new fossil fuel projects. That is very clear in our climate bank roadmap. There is perhaps a misunderstanding about that, but once again I can assure you that we are very clear about this.  There were also some reactions about cohesion to say, okay, we have done a lot, and I can tell you that we are very eager to not only to reach our goals, but also to go further than the goals that we put in front. I can tell you that we are above the goals that we have put on the table. This cohesion is also, for us, very important.  Then Ukraine. A lot of interventions underlined that we support Ukraine. That’s for sure. I hope that also in the future we can, in cooperation with the European Commission, of course, have the opportunity to support also in the future European reconstruction with loans and to help the country.  I can tell you that also about migration, and certainly in the countries in the neighbourhood of Ukraine, we have provided some loans for refugees and so on. I do not understand very well why this reaction was on the table by some Members of the European Parliament, but we also support not only countries like Poland and a lot of others, but also have a specific instrument to support the costs and the infrastructure for refugees.  I think that when we talk about competitiveness and what we are doing, of course we place a lot of emphasis on the impact of our loans – loans to make our companies more competitive and also to create jobs. And I can tell you that now we have a discussion also in the dialogue with the European Commission and the Council on what we can do in the area of the Inflation Reduction Act of the United States of America, and what role the Bank can play in this endeavour and what can be our contribution to find solutions at a at a European level.  Last but not least, transparency was mentioned. We have done a lot to be very clear, also to this European Parliament, that transparency is also for us a very important issue and policy. We have reached an agreement with the European Court of Auditors. We have a new tripartite agreement. I have met the President of ECA. We try to cooperate at a very high and very good level. On this also, I hope in the next reports we can have the support of the European Parliament that we have this new tripartite agreement, and with the cooperation of ECA and the European Parliament we are on the right track.  Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, is for me very important to have this debate with you. When you want to have some specific debates in the committees we are there. You call us and we shall be there where you need us.