The arms race to which you want to add Europe needs money. A lot. And for that there is use of all resources and tools available. One of them is the European Investment Bank (BE), to which 19 EU countries, including Spain, Germany, Italy and France, have just sent a letter to “adjust its credit policy to increase the financing volume Available in the field of security and defense ”. The letter, signed by the prime ministers of these states, arrives three days before the summit that will be held next Monday a single theme will be addressed: the European defense.
Since Nadia Calviño arrived at the Presidency of the Bei, now a year ago, he has been claimed that the entity he directs lends more money for security and defense projects. And he has done it. In a single year, investments in this field have doubled after 500 million euros to 1 billion in 2024. It also modified its criteria to facilitate the granting of loans to this type of activities. And this Thursday, in the presentation of the results of the Bank last year, the Spanish announced that it doubles the target of credits for defense, up to 2,000 million.
But all this is not enough for most EU leaders. In the letter sent, the 19 states require the BEI to reassess the list of excluded activities “in their credit policy, that it allocates more credit lines to defense projects and studying the” possibility that the BEI issues specific debt and reserved to finance security and defense projects. ”
It is true that in recent years, the largest European public bank has changed its policy to finance activities linked to the war industry. That has intensified in the last year, especially when last April he eliminated obstacles to invest in this field and opened channels that facilitated communication with this sector. However, loans granted to this industry still have a very low weight in the total portfolio: those 1,000 million new credit granted last year barely suppose 1.1% of the total (in 2024 the new investment amounted to 89,000 million) , and the 2,000 planned for this year would only raise the percentage to 2.1%.
Calviño has never refused to increase Bei’s commitment to defense. Nor can it do so, since the shareholders of this entity – a luck of ICO of the EU – are the states that make up the Union and its Council is made up of the Ministers of Finance of the Union. But she has always warned that “it is important that each actor in this market focuses on the fields in which it has greater added value.” With these words, it comes to say that the BEI is responsible for financing industrial and research activity, but not the purchase of weapons or ammunition by the states.
The latter does not seem to be the intention of the leaders, since in the letter them Defense in the EU would boost private financing and have a strong signaling effect against other market investors and operators. ”
That the letter, which also has the signature of the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, arrives on the eve of Monday’s European Summit makes it very clear where the intentions of the leaders of the Union are going for that appointment. The letter is not only addressed to Calviño, but also has as reference to Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, and Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland, the country that presides over the EU council during the first half of 2025. This also this also It was defined in the text of the call that Costa wrote on January 13, which was highlighted by the expression: “Europe needs to assume more responsibility in its own defense.”
This last sentence is undoubtedly a message to the new president of the United States, Donald Trump, who has claimed the NATO members to increase security spending up to 5% of GDP, more than double the minimum he now sets The Atlantic Alliance as a goal (2%).