New pact boosts defense-industry goals in EU lending scheme

BERLIN — The European Union’s funding and defense branches are moving closer together in a bid to strengthen the continent’s military-industrial complex, with an updated agreement between the European Investment Bank and the European Defence Agency being concluded on Wednesday.

The European Investment Bank, which funds businesses and projects across the bloc to enhance Europe’s competitiveness, will now receive industry guidance from the European Defence Agency, a joint press release said on Tuesday. The partnership “aims to provide increased investments to strengthen the EU collective defense capabilities,” the statement further said.

The EIB has traditionally been strictly civilian. Restrictions on its lending and funding policies ruled out funding most military projects or procurements. Those rules have been weakened in the past half-decade, especially since the war in Ukraine.

A memorandum of understanding between the EDA and the EIB was signed as early as 2018, with the latest agreement as an update to the original document. While the watershed moment came in February 2022, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a collection of small moves aimed at steering the Brussels bureaucracy towards defense outcomes has effectively eroded a longstanding taboo, as Defense News has previously reported .

“The EIB Group is implementing its objectives outlined in the Defence Action Plan, and is committed to helping scale up this industry,” said EIB Vice President Robert de Groot.

By collaborating with the Agency, the EIB and its components are meant to be better informed about needs of the defense sector. This will “reinforce our shared goal of enhancing European security,” said Marjut Falkstedt, chief executive of the European Investment Fund, a part of the EIB tasked with supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises across the continent. The fund has played a significant role in the EU bank’s efforts to enter the security space.

European governments have allocated more funding to military matters since Russia invaded Ukraine and the resulting loss of a sense of security on the continent. Simultaneously, the EU has become more assertive in the defense space, a field traditionally considered a prerogative purely of the 27 member states’ national governments and NATO.

For the first time ever, the European Union this year will get a dedicated defense commissioner, nominated by Ursula von der Leyen after her re-election as the Bloc’s head and expected to be confirmed by November. While far from a traditional defense minister – national governments aren’t willing to give up that much power to Brussels quite yet – the new commission post will likely work to coordinate joint procurement and further European military integration. Both trends have increasingly entered the policy mainstream across the continent.

Simultaneously, some have called for the EU to play a more prominent role in defense procurement and funding. This is where the EIB and its subsidiary institutions come in. The bank has set itself a target of funding €8 billion ($8.8 billion) through its Strategic European Security Initiative until the end of 2027, of which it has already disbursed €2 billion ($2.15 billion) in the program’s first two years.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Oct. 4 to correct the attribution of a quote to EIB Vice President Robert de Groot.

Linus Höller is Defense News' Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds master’s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.

柏林——为了加强欧洲大陆的军事工业综合体，欧盟的融资和国防部门正在走得更近。欧洲投资银行和欧洲防务局于周三达成了一项更新的协议。

欧洲投资银行（负责为欧盟各地的企业和项目提供资金，以提升欧洲的竞争力）将接受欧洲防务局的行业指导。一份联合新闻稿于周二发布。声明还指出，此次合作“旨在增加投资，以加强欧盟的集体防御能力”。

欧洲投资银行传统上是一家严格的民用银行。其贷款和融资政策的限制使其无法为大多数军事项目或采购提供资金。但在过去五年中，尤其是在乌克兰战争之后，这些限制有所放松。

欧洲防务局 (EDA) 与欧洲投资银行 (EIB) 早在 2018 年就签署了谅解备忘录，最新协议是对原文件的更新。尽管 2022 年 2 月俄罗斯入侵乌克兰是具有里程碑意义的时刻，但正如《防务新闻》此前报道，一系列旨在引导布鲁塞尔官僚机构朝着国防方向发展的举措，已有效地打破了长期以来的禁忌。

“欧洲投资银行集团正在落实其在国防行动计划中概述的目标，并致力于帮助扩大该行业的规模，”欧洲投资银行副总裁罗伯特·德·格鲁特表示。

通过与该机构合作，欧洲投资银行及其下属机构旨在更好地了解国防领域的需求。欧洲投资基金首席执行官玛尤特·法尔克斯泰特表示，这将“强化我们提升欧洲安全的共同目标”。欧洲投资基金是欧洲投资银行的一部分，负责支持欧洲大陆的中小型企业。该基金在欧盟银行进军安全领域的努力中发挥了重要作用。

自俄罗斯入侵乌克兰以及由此导致欧洲大陆安全感丧失以来，欧洲各国政府增加了对军事事务的投入。与此同时，欧盟在国防领域也变得更加积极主动，而国防领域传统上被认为是27个成员国政府和北约的专属领域。

今年，欧盟将首次设立专门的国防委员职位，该职位由乌尔苏拉·冯德莱恩在连任欧盟主席后提名，预计将于11月获得确认。虽然这与传统意义上的国防部长相去甚远——各国政府目前还不愿将如此大的权力拱手让给布鲁塞尔——但这一新职位很可能负责协调联合采购和进一步推进欧洲军事一体化。这两个趋势都已日益成为欧洲大陆的主流政策。

与此同时，一些人呼吁欧盟在国防采购和资金筹措方面发挥更重要的作用。欧洲投资银行及其附属机构正是在此背景下应运而生。该银行已设定目标，通过其“欧洲战略安全倡议”在2027年底前筹集80亿欧元（约合88亿美元）的资金，并在该计划的前两年已拨付了20亿欧元（约合21.5亿美元）。

编者按：本文于 10 月 4 日更新，更正了引述欧洲投资银行副总裁罗伯特·德·格鲁特的言论。

林努斯·霍勒是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者和开源情报调查员。他报道影响欧洲乃至全球的军火交易、制裁和地缘政治。他拥有大规模杀伤性武器不扩散、恐怖主义研究和国际关系三个硕士学位，并精通英语、德语、俄语和西班牙语四种语言。