Europe should pace up its push for power independence and break away from “excessive dependence on fossil fuels” because the continent grapples with a extra unstable and hostile international order, the top of the world’s largest public financial institution advised FRANCE 24’s Douglas Herbert in Talking Europe.
Nadia Calviño, the president of the European Investment Bank, and a former deputy prime minister within the Spanish authorities of Pedro Sanchez, has been named one Europe’s prime “doers” by the digital information website Politico.
She is on the helm of one of many world’s largest public lenders – which has set a funding purpose of €100 billion this yr alone – at a time when defence, safety and tech sovereignty have catapulted to the highest of the European agenda.
Calviño advised FRANCE 24 that the inexperienced transition is a strategic necessity. “We need to continue on this track… so that we can become more independent and have a stronger voice in this new world.”
That shift can be seen within the EIB’s evolving priorities. While insisting prior to now that the financial institution is “not a defence ministry”, Calviño says the shifting international panorama has seen a pointy enhance within the financial institution’s help for safety and defence-related tasks, notably dual-use applied sciences.
Funding has roughly doubled over the previous two years, and will rise additional. “I wouldn’t exclude that we revise [targets] upwards in the course of the year,” she mentioned, pointing to rising demand as Europe seeks to scale up its capabilities.
Beyond geopolitics, Calviño highlighted a mounting home strain level: Europe’s housing disaster. Housing costs throughout the EU have surged by round 60 p.c since 2015, with rents hovering and provide tightening.
“We’ve had a perfect storm since the pandemic,” she mentioned. The EIB plans to speculate €6 billion this yr in housing, specializing in cheaper building strategies, renovation of current buildings and new tasks as a part of a broader push to ease strain on households and youthful generations.
On Ukraine, the EIB has emerged as a key monetary backer since Russia’s full-scale invasion, mobilising €4 billion to rebuild infrastructure, help companies and hold the financial system afloat.
Calviño expressed confidence in Ukraine’s long-term prospects. “I am quite confident that the Ukrainian economy is going to bounce back very strongly once the war is over,” she mentioned, citing the resilience of its folks and ongoing cooperation with Kyiv.
She additionally pushed again on the influence of US commerce tensions beneath Donald Trump, arguing that tariffs have hit American corporations tougher than European ones.
EU corporations, she mentioned, are benefiting from an unlimited community of world commerce agreements. In a fragmenting world, she insisted, Europe has the instruments, and the size, to behave like the worldwide financial superpower it’s – if it chooses to make use of them.
Program ready by Paul Guianvarc’h, Perrine Desplats, Aline Bottin, Oihana Almandoz and Isabelle Romero
https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/talking-europe/20260327-we-need-to-double-down-on-energy-autonomy-eib-chief-nadia-calvi%C3%B1o