European Investment Bank

Our mission is to further the objectives of the European Union by making long-term finance available for sound investment. European Investment Bank (EIB) is established following the Treaty of Rome, which created the European Community (EC). The adoption of a new regional policy more closely aligns EIB with EC policy objectives. EIB begins providing loans to small and mid-sized enterprise (SME) and industrial markets. Libson European Council establishes new long-term objectives, including development of Europe into the world's largest knowledge-based economy. EIB drafts a new policy, Innovation 2010 Initiative, in support of the Lisbon council objectives. The bank's capital is increased to EUR 162 billion after ten new countries join the European Union. As the primary financial arm of the European Union, the European Investment Bank (EIB) is also the world's largest bank and the world's largest lender, topping even such better-known institutions as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The bulk of the non-profit bank's lending remains focused on the member states of the European Union. Of the more than EUR 42 billion in loans signed in 2003, nearly 80 percent went to support infrastructure, industrial, high tech and other investments within the European Union. Germany remains the single-largest contributor to the EIB's capital base and is also its top recipient--largely in order to support development in the former East Germany regions--accounting for more than 19 percent of all loans in 2003. Spain is the next-largest recipient, with loans of about 19 percent as well. EIB has also played an important role in supporting the "accession" of the EU's newest member states from Eastern Europe, which joined in 2004 and expanding the EU to 25 states. The EIB has been providing infrastructure and other development loans to these regions on a massive scale since the late 1980s. Nonetheless, since the early 2000s, the EIB has been shifting away from its traditional role as a financing institution and instead has been redeveloping itself as a motor for European economic growth and competitiveness. In this capacity, the EIB has shifted a significant percentage of its lending portfolio towards high-technology investments and to the SME (small and mid-sized enterprise) segment, including medium and long-term loans, venture capital, and other financial backing. The bank also supports the so-called TENs (Trans-European Networks) projects linking all of the EU or at least several of its member states, such as the preparation of a European-wide broadband network. The EIB is based in Luxembourg and operates independently of the European Union government, while deriving its capital base of more than EUR 250 billion from contributions from each EU member. The EU states also provide the EIB with its strong Triple AAA rating by providing financial guarantees. Since 2000, EIB has been a member of the EIB Group, which also includes the European Investment Fund (held at 60.5 percent by EIB itself). Philippe Maystadt, former Belgian finance minister, has been president of EIB since 2000. The European Investment Bank was created by the Treaty of Rome--which established the basis for the European Community--in 1958. Codified under Articles 129 and 130 of the treaty, the EIB's role was to provide financing in the form of loans for Europe's major infrastructure projects. Special emphasis was placed on infrastructure projects benefiting all five of the EC's initial members, particularly those that contributed to the smooth and balanced creation of a common market. Another initial function of the EIB was to serve as a means of compensating the presumed "losers" of an inter-European union, that is, ensuring that resources were to be directed toward the weaker economies among the EC's partners. As the strongest and largest of the five initial EC countries, Germany played a prominent role in defining the nature of the new bank. At that cou