The incoming head of one of the world’s largest development banks says it must become faster and more efficient in order to finance priorities such as the climate transition and Ukraine rebuild.
Nadia Calviño, Spain’s finance minister and deputy prime minister, was appointed head of the European Investment Bank Friday — in what has been touted as a boost for Spanish influence within the European Union. Known as the EU’s lending arm it approved some 75.86 billion euros ($81.6 billion) in new projects in 2022.
“One of my priorities when I get to the European Investment Bank will be to see how to speed up procedures, how to make the institution, not leaner, but more efficient in funding, public and private investment,” Calviño told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Monday.
“We also have a European Union with 27 member states, and it is a complex construction. But still, it leads the green transition in the world, it has a leading role in many of today’s debates, and I think this leading role should be preserved going forward.”
The organization “has the capability, the ability, to mobilize large amounts of investment, public and private investment, in the areas of the green transition, the rebuilding of Ukraine, and all other European priorities. So indeed, I do think that we need an EIB which is fit for purpose to support European policies going forward,” she said. She said she will also look to increase co-operation and discussion between global multilateral development banks to create a “global safety net” fit to meet new challenges.
Calviño said that Spain had launched a “massive” investment program using funds from the NextGenerationEU pandemic recovery instrument.
“What we see is that we launched strategic projects in the area of electric vehicles, or precision health, or agri-tech … or chips. And this is actually attracting large private investments that see Spain as a great opportunity for them to set their bases and invest in R&D [research and development]…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply