EU bank, NATO fund partner to support European defense businesses

BERLIN — The European Union’s lending arm and NATO’s venture capital fund will share information and work more closely together to support small and midsized companies across the continent that focus on security and defense, the organizations announced Tuesday.

Under a memorandum of understanding, signed July 2, the European Investment Fund and the NATO Innovation Fund will set expectations for closer cooperation well into the future, including sharing know-how and “raising awareness about potential investments,” according to an information sheet the European Investment Bank provided to Defense News.

The document also noted the two funds “will also exchange information with the European Commission,” when relevant.

However, the memorandum “does not refer to joint investments,” a European Investment Bank spokesperson told Defense News. Both parties will continue to fund projects separately and for their respective member states — 24 countries in the NATO group and 28 in the EU organization.

Founded by the alliance in 2023, the NATO Innovation Fund is an ostensibly stand-alone organization backed by two dozen member states. All NIF countries are located in Europe, but four — Turkey, Norway, Iceland and the U.K. — are not EU members.

The fund has up to €1 billion (U.S. $1.1 billion) to disburse, and it focuses on “ deep tech ,” which includes artificial intelligence, quantum computing and robotics. The NIF’s relationship with NATO as a whole helps the fund’s stakeholders find potential buyers of innovations among alliance members.

The European Investment Bank, jointly owned by EU member states, supports businesses on the continent with several financial products, including loans. Through its European Investment Fund, the bank claims to have helped 2 million European small businesses access capital over the past 30 years. The fund aims to generate about €145 billion in investments for businesses, according to its website.

“Financing for Europe’s security and defense industry is among the EIB group’s strategic priorities,” the bank said in a news release ahead of Tuesday’s signing. Some prioritized sectors included reconnaissance, spectrum control, cybersecurity, infrastructure and mobility, the bank added.

“[Partnering with] the NATO Innovation Fund affirms the EIB Group’s commitment to step up its support for Europe’s security and defense industry,” said Robert De Groot, EIB’s vice president.

He added that recent revisions to the bank’s lending policies to allow for more security-oriented companies to receive European funding are already bearing fruit. “A few weeks ago, we announced the financing of dual-use satellites in Poland and the dual-use upgrade and expansion of a Danish port,” he said.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine has driven the EU to flex its economic muscle in the military tech space. Key institutions, including the EIB, have revised lending rules and announced fresh strategic priorities to facilitate money going to companies that work on primarily defense-related projects.

Not all EU states are NATO members, although Sweden and Finland recently joined the alliance. Still, the bloc and alliance communicate regularly to discuss common interests. Despite the EU having its collective defense mechanism, the bloc’s treaty specifies NATO as the primary means for collective self-defense for those countries who are members in both organizations.

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——欧盟贷款机构和北约风险投资基金周二宣布，双方将共享信息并更紧密地合作，以支持整个欧洲大陆专注于安全和国防领域的中小型企业。

根据欧洲投资银行向《防务新闻》提供的一份信息表，欧洲投资基金和北约创新基金于 7 月 2 日签署了一份谅解备忘录，双方将就未来更紧密的合作设定预期，包括分享专业知识和“提高对潜在投资的认识”。

该文件还指出，这两个基金“在相关情况下还将与欧盟委员会交换信息”。

然而，欧洲投资银行一位发言人告诉《防务新闻》，该备忘录“并未提及联合投资”。双方将继续各自为各自的成员国——北约24个成员国和欧盟28个成员国——单独资助项目。

北约创新基金由北约于2023年创立，表面上是一个独立运作的组织，由二十多个成员国支持。所有北约创新基金成员国都位于欧洲，但其中四个——土耳其、挪威、冰岛和英国——并非欧盟成员国。

该基金拥有高达10亿欧元（约合11亿美元）的资金可供拨付，重点关注“深度科技”，包括人工智能、量子计算和机器人技术。北约创新基金与北约整体的良好关系，有助于基金的利益相关者在联盟成员国中寻找创新技术的潜在买家。

欧洲投资银行由欧盟成员国共同所有，通过提供包括贷款在内的多种金融产品，为欧洲大陆的企业提供支持。该银行声称，过去30年里，其欧洲投资基金已帮助200万家欧洲小型企业获得资金。据其官网显示，该基金的目标是为企业筹集约1450亿欧元的投资。

欧洲投资银行在周二签署协议前发布的新闻稿中表示：“为欧洲安全和国防工业提供融资是欧洲投资银行集团的战略重点之一。”该行补充说，一些优先领域包括侦察、频谱控制、网络安全、基础设施和交通运输。

欧洲投资银行副总裁罗伯特·德·格鲁特表示：“与北约创新基金合作，彰显了欧洲投资银行集团致力于加大对欧洲安全和国防工业的支持力度。”

他补充说，该行近期对贷款政策的修订，旨在让更多以安全为导向的公司获得欧洲融资，这些修订已经初见成效。“几周前，我们宣布为波兰的军民两用卫星项目以及丹麦一座港口的军民两用升级扩建项目提供融资，”他说道。

俄罗斯对乌克兰的袭击促使欧盟在军事科技领域展现其经济实力。包括欧洲投资银行在内的主要机构已修订贷款规则，并宣布了新的战略重点，以促进资金流向主要从事国防相关项目的公司。

并非所有欧盟成员国都是北约成员国，尽管瑞典和芬兰最近加入了北约。不过，欧盟和北约成员国之间保持着定期沟通，讨论共同利益。尽管欧盟拥有自己的集体防御机制，但欧盟条约明确规定，对于同时加入欧盟和北约的国家而言，北约是其集体自卫的主要手段。

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。