This paper will first examine (in section II) the context in which the European Investment Bank, (EIB) needs to operate, given the major challenges of the European Green transformation, and in the framework of the Euro-pean Green Deal (EGD), with reference also to the major additional challenges posed by COVID-19 crisis, including the financing of companies, especially SMEs.
It will then briefly outline the new roles and resources, which the EIB has been given to meet these challenges, and the central role the EIB will be playing in the green transition. This paper builds on previous research carried out by one of the authors in a FEPS project, (Griffith-Jones and Naqvi 2021), which described the history, scale and role of the EIB/EIF (European Investment Fund), part of the EIB Group which is, by far, the largest multilateral bank in the world.
The paper (in section III) will then focus on some of the main instruments the EIB does and can use to help achieve the aims posed by the above challenges. Special emphasis will be placed on the role that equity and quasi-equity instruments (such as venture debt) do and can play. This section will not just draw on the literature and previous research the author has done, but also on in-depth interviews carried out with senior officials at the EIB and elsewhere, as well as with think tank senior col-leagues, (see list in Appendix). Section IV concludes and makes policy recommendations.
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