“With a multitude of challenges on the horizon, not least the green transformation and the pursuit of a more sustainable future, the EIB Group and the EIF in particular will remain steadfast in our commitment to European small businesses.”
Gelsomina Vigliotti
Chair of the Board, EIB Vice-President
With a number of challenges of recent years still very much on our radar, and new ones emerging in the course of this past year, the EIB Group has continued to direct much-needed financial support to key sectors of the European economy. The EIF in particular, has done so to the tune of €14.9bn, teaming up with close to 300 partner institutions across Europe and making financing available for more than 350,000 small businesses, infrastructure projects, households and individuals alike.
The geopolitical developments around us serve to underline the urgency in strengthening Europe’s sovereignty in key sectors, in boosting our competitiveness on the global stage, and in ensuring that our economies are well fuelled. In this respect, the EIF’s support for innovative entrepreneurs constitutes an important contribution to shaping our common future and driving growth in areas of strategic relevance, like the new space industry, deep tech, life sciences and most significantly perhaps, environmental sustainability. And going a step further, the launch of the European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI) is a great example of collaboration across EU Member States and the EIB Group to ensure that great ideas born in Europe can also grow and flourish in Europe.
At the same time, the range of different instruments deployed provides the EIB Group with a broad outreach and allows us to make a tangible contribution to fighting climate change and pursuing a greener, digital and more inclusive future.
With a multitude of challenges on the horizon, not least the green transformation and the pursuit of a more sustainable future, the EIB Group and the EIF in particular will remain steadfast in our commitment to European small businesses, using financial instruments to channel public resources through the capital markets and on to European entrepreneurs in an efficient and effective manner, with our focus locked on impact. But we will also be looking for opportunities to engage with the markets and generate positive outcomes.
As we enter the EIF’s 30-year anniversary year, looking back, but more importantly, looking ahead, we are confident in the role the organisation can play in helping the European Union support our economies and, not least, the small businesses that make its economy tick. And we will build on what we have learned to achieve even greater impact going forward.
“The numbers only tell part of the story, as the essence of our work lies in the impact behind them: improved competitiveness, support for innovative entrepreneurs and digitalisation, social impact, greater sustainability and support for the green transformation.”
Marjut Falkstedt
Chief Executive
This past year has seen the EIF mobilise more than €134bn for the real economy, making it our second most ‘productive’ year in terms of commitments. But the numbers only tell part of the story, as the essence of our work lies in the impact behind them: improved competitiveness, support for innovative entrepreneurs and digitalisation, social impact, greater sustainability and support for the green transformation.
One of our recurring objectives is to branch out further and open new channels of cooperation in an effort to make sure that financing is made as accessible as possible to European businesses. This year’s story says exactly that. 2023 saw us collaborate with many new intermediaries, as one third of this year’s partners are new. It also saw significant growth in our securitisation work, reaching €3bn in commitments this year, and developing into a very useful tool for generating fresh loan portfolios with a very green colour to add even more weight to our collective sustainability efforts. And our work with national and regional authorities exploded to €4.2bn, including ETCI, coming over and above our InvestEU efforts, which remains the main driver of our activity at 39%. This year has also seen significant progress on the path to a gender-balanced economy, with more than €1.6bn committed to partners that meet the InvestEU gender criteria, turning commitments and goals into real action. And there will be more.
I take this opportunity to thank the EIF’s staff that have, once again, worked tirelessly throughout the year to conclude no fewer than 341 transactions and a wide range of non-financial activity like events and capacity-building work to nurture the European financial ecosystem and achieve real impact on the ground.
Going forward, we will continue to work with the EIB, the European Commission and the Member States to make financing more readily available to Europe’s ambitious entrepreneurs. In a year that marks our 30-year anniversary, we will be looking back at all our achievements to date and use that inspiration to aim for even more ambitious targets, offering solutions fitting everyone, from the small bakery on the corner to farmers and the innovators developing the next generation of satellite propellor technology, and everything in between. We will make every effort to target key sectors and industries to ensure that European sovereignty and competitiveness are secured and that the economy is fuelled for its drive to a greener, digital and more inclusive future.
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