The European Union’s lending arm said on Thursday that it expects to spend at least \u20ac4 billion on security and defence projects in 2026 \u2013 the same as it did last year after effectively quadrupling its financing in the area. <\/p>\n
Overall, the European Investment Bank (EIB) spent 5% of its financing in the EU on security and defence projects last year, a target it had initially planned to reach only in 2026.<\/p>\n
EIB President Nadia Calvi\u00f1o told reporters in Brussels this represented a “step change” for her institution, which expanded the scope of eligible activities to pure military investments, and that she is “confident” the target will be met again in 2026 thanks to a “robust pipeline of projects”.<\/p>\n
These include funding large critical infrastructure to boost military mobility and facilities \u2013 among them a military campus in Lithuania and a port expansion for military vessels in Denmark \u2013 boosting homegrown industrial capabilities, financing research and development for new security and defence technologies, and improving access to financing for SMEs in the sector through partnerships with commercial banks and venture capital funds. <\/p>\n
The EIB, whose shareholders are the EU’s 27 governments, is the world\u2019s largest multilateral financial institution by assets and maintains a robust AAA credit rating. <\/p>\n
Since 2024, it has revised its lending policy several times to allow for greater financing of security and defence projects as member states and the European Commission look to boost defence spending across the bloc, both to support Ukraine’s war efforts and to prepare for a possible military attack from Russia.<\/p>\n
Some intelligence agencies have warned this could take place before the turn of the decade. <\/p>\n
Streamlining the sector<\/p>\n
Asked if the EIB’s \u20ac4 billion funding is enough given the EU’s defence spending need \u2013 estimated by the Commission at roughly \u20ac500 billion over the next decade \u2013 Calvi\u00f1o defended its institution, stressing that “the European Investment Bank Group is not a defence ministry”.<\/p>\n
“Financing plays an important part, but not only. It is very important to standardise techniques, to have joint procurement, to streamline the way the whole security and defence sector is working in Europe,” she said. <\/p>\n
“The European Investment Bank Group is making a difference because we are focusing in those areas where we can really have strong value added. For example, large infrastructures, large-scale investments that require long-term loans in good financial conditions; for example, nurturing the ecosystem which is emerging of private venture capital funds, investment funds, through the European Investment Fund.”<\/p>\n
Overall, the EIB invested a record \u20ac100 billion in 2025, with roughly 60% going to green projects.<\/p>\n
On the energy front, it provided a record \u20ac33 billion in financing, Calvi\u00f1o said at her press conference, contributing to \u20ac108 billion in total investment, which corresponds to more than a quarter of total investment in the EU in 2025.<\/p>\n
That figure includes grid investments, with a record \u20ac11.6 billion for power infrastructure and storage, including the Bay of Biscay interconnector between the Iberian Peninsula and France, a crucial project to increase Portugal and Spain\u2019s connectivity with the rest of the continent.<\/p>\n
Future projects are expected to support the construction of about 56,000 kilometres of power cables, the EIB\u2019s chief said, stressing the continued goal to deploy more wind and solar power.<\/p>\n
Calvi\u00f1o also referred to energy efficiency investments that will back more than 350,000 SMEs in reducing their energy bills, as well as efforts to decarbonise heavy industries such as steel and aluminium.<\/p>\n
She also highlighted investments made into the development of new net-zero technologies and fuels, such as Europe’s largest lithium production project, the Lionheart Project in Germany, and nuclear power in Finland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Union’s lending arm said on Thursday that it expects to spend at least \u20ac4 billion on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2993,2000,7221,299,5187,1699,133423,16134],"class_list":{"0":"post-728469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-defence","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-eu-policy","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-european-investment-bank","15":"tag-nadia-calvino"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115978202304543314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}