Europese Investeringsbank gaat ruimer kredieten verlenen aan landen en bedrijven (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Investment Bank is rising to the challenge of the economic recession by increasing lending to countries, banks and companies, its president, Philippe Maystadt, said on Monday (9 March) at the bank's annual press conference in Brussels.
The EIB has committed itself to contribute to the European Economic Recovery Plan agreed by EU leaders last December and will increase its overall lending to €66 billion in 2009, an increase of €15 billion on their initial plans.
"Really, we are doing our best to respond as quickly as possible to the call from our shareholders from the member states," said Mr Maystadt, pointing to the large jump in lending to EU states over the last five months.
The bank, created by the Treaty of Rome to provide long-term loans to projects furthering EU policy objectives, lent €57 billion in 2008, up from €48 billion in 2007.
Funds are targeted towards helping small and medium-sized businesses, energy projects - especially those fighting climate change - and projects aimed at to removing the disparities in wealth across the EU.
The EIB does not rely on member-state contributions, instead raising money for lending on the international capital markets by issuing bonds. It raised €59.5 billion in this way in 2008.
"The bank was able to issue under favourable terms for most of 2008. We benefited from our triple-A credit rating ... but at the end of the year, this became more difficult because of the tightening of market conditions," said Mr Maystadt.
He added that despite the huge increase in sovereign bonds on the market, the EIB has so far managed to raise €24 billion in the first two months of this year, more than one third of the funding programme for 2009.
Concerns over SMEs
Last month, the EIB teamed up with the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in announcing a €24.5 billion funding programme for banks in central and eastern Europe.
Under the plan, the EIB has agreed to supply some €11 billion in SME lending facilities in central, eastern, and southern Europe.
But Mr Maystadt admitted on Monday that he was concerned that SMEs in southeast Europe were suffering from a shortage of credit and said the EIB would meet the region's banks to discuss the issue.
"What concerns us is that even though these credit lines exist and we are ready to lend to banks, until now they have used relatively little," he said.
"Therefore, we have decided to organise a meeting with all the banking groups represented in these countries to help us understand why to date they are lending relatively little to SMEs."
A survey carried out last week by the Association of European Chambers of Commerce (Eurochambres), suggests that over two thirds of European businesses face growing difficulties in accessing credit.
Funding for car sector
Mr Maystadt said that by the middle of this year the EIB will have approved €7 billion in loans to the EU car sector, which is currently struggling with plummeting sales, plant closures and thousands of worker layoffs. This figure represents over 10 percent of total lending forecast for 2009.
As a result of the huge demand from the car sector, the EIB has placed a lending ceiling of €400 million per car company per year to avoid over exposure to any one company and to avoid lending all the bank's funds to too few countries.
"We are a European institution and we must aim for a balanced approach," Mr Maystadt said.
German car company Volkswagen recently received €400 million from the bank to develop green technologies.