EIB quadrupled defence‑sector financing in 2025

Brussels – The European Investment Bank (EIB) met its goal of keeping 60 percent of financing in sustainability in 2025, but it is in the defence sector that activity has surged to unprecedented levels: four billion euros, four times the amount invested in 2024 and well above the stated target. The report on the group’s 2025 annual results shows above all that defence spending has not doubled but quadrupled, accounting for 5 per cent of total funding.

 It should be noted that during the year, in mid-2025, the EIB decided to expand its scope in the sector, thanks to an overall increase in spending to up to 100 billion euros. Beyond that, “we have done better than expected, having already achieved last year the target we had set ourselves for 2026,” EIB President Nadia Calviño said. She added that she was “confident that we will be able to confirm this at the end of this year as well.” This is also because “there is no doubt that the European Union must increase its defence capabilities,” and continuing along this path appears necessary.” 

Critical infrastructure, military mobility, port expansion, industrial capacity with a particular focus on drone production, research and development for new security technologies such as fibre-optic sensors for network protection: this is where the EIB has invested more than ever before. Not to mention “support for small and medium-sized enterprises” in the sector, Calviño points out. “We act as guarantors and have agreements with banks such as Banque Populaire, Santander, and Deutsche Bank” to ensure access to credit. “This allows us to guarantee loans on favourable terms and through various instruments.”

 https://www.eunews.it/en/2025/03/06/security-costa-europe-of-defense-needs-the-eib/

 Calviño is keen to emphasise, however, that the new political priorities have not detracted from the institution’s “green” vocation. “Almost” 60 per cent of the EIB Group’s total financing in 2025 was allocated to green projects, ranging from large energy networks and interconnections to the implementation of storage and renewable energy systems and clean technologies for the decarbonisation of heavy industry. Here, the EIB President points out that “a record amount” of 11.6 billion  euros was allocated to network and storage projects, supporting the security of electricity supply. 

“It is estimated that the financing signed last year will contribute to the construction or modernisation of 56,000 kilometres of power lines, from the historic Bay of Biscay interconnection between the Iberian Peninsula and France, via an undersea cable connecting two regions of central Italy, to local networks and municipal electricity infrastructure in Germany,” Calviño said, nevertheless admitting: “We must increase our investment in adapting to climate change.”

 Among the results highlighted are five billion in financing for water management and five billion for affordable housing, for interventions supporting renovation and innovation, which the EIB already plans to “increase in 2026.” Because, as Calviño points out, “from student residences in Greece to social housing in Belgium, from hospitals and healthcare facilities in Spain to primary schools in France, financing for social infrastructure is a key priority for the EIB Group.”