The point about the European Investment Bank (EIB) and current debates about its role and capabilities that I find most interesting at the time of writing is that it is all part of a wider phenomenon. A much broader phenomenon than its simple transformation into a climate and sustainable green bank, a necessary and significant change to be welcomed and persevered. A great questioning and a slight paradigm shift characterise this phenomenon, both at the national and the European level, perceptible through numerous documents and recent moves, of the EU’s general economic policy and position in terms of industry, competition, trade, new technologies, search and development and competitiveness. In fact, this whole debate, which is in full swing, concerns a vital question, the project of the EU itself, its construction and its purpose as much as its very substance.

 What is at stake is whether we are satisfied with the current state of affairs, with a large common market, or whether we wish to go further, to be more than just a market but an even more impactful actor in the world’s economic dynamics: not to be subjected to them but to influence them at their very heart. Moreover, if the logical continuation of the European construction seems to take precedence over a more strategic vision, considering the economy not only as an end but also more and more as a mean and a relay (of power and prosperity), the EIB has a fundamental role to play, even more than the central role it has occupied since its creation following the Treaty of Rome. Since then, the EU has gone through many crises without always emerging stronger or more resilient. The current situation highlights in an obvious way the weaknesses of the European edifice and the immense challenges that must be tackled head-on. The role and means of the EIB need to be constantly entrenched and at the same time continuously and further developed to counteract two decades of loss of European competitiveness in many fields, to counteract an arguably over-dependence on non-European actors, but also to be better incorporated into the relaunch of the European project more broadly. This concerns a large number of central areas: new and green technologies, transports, energies, S&D, ICT, health materials and space activities. Furthermore, this also requires recognising that public power in the 21st century has an inevitable role to play, notably through financial, economic and public investment levers.

At a time when the great powers are using and abusing the attractions and powers allowed by economic tools and successes through offensive industrial and trade policies, strategic investments and carnivorous logics, and when private players are encountering market failure and aversion to long-term investment, the EIB must, even more so than ever before, play the role of a link between the present and the future. The EIB must, more than ever before, forge even deeper links with every institution of the Union, with every Member State and ultimately with every European citizen and business. The EIB must embody even more the spirit of a bridge between the short and long-term logics, between the private initiative and the public one, between the ideas and the realisation of a stronger, more autonomous and capable Europe.