The European Investment Bank (EIB) has set a historic annual lending capacity of 100 billion euros for 2025, aimed at bolstering the EU's defense industry, energy infrastructure, and technological advancements.

This funding increase comes ahead of the NATO summit, where European nations are urged to enhance their defense spending due to reduced security commitments from the U.S.

In response to rising geopolitical tensions, the EIB is tripling its lending to the defense sector, allocating 3.5% of its total financing to military initiatives.

While the EIB cannot invest directly in weapons, it will finance 'dual-use' projects that benefit both military and civilian sectors, such as GPS systems and military infrastructure.

The EIB has identified 32 flagship projects in the defense sector and plans to extend support to both public and private EU companies.

The EIB Group also plans to invest 70 billion euros by 2027 to support innovative tech start-ups and scale-ups across Europe.

The TechEU initiative aims to support innovative companies from initial concepts to stock market listings, ensuring that European-born ideas can thrive within the region.

Initially, TechEU will focus on clean industries, providing support for clean technology innovators and the wind power sector to stabilize energy prices.

Investment areas will include supercomputing, AI, digital infrastructure, green industries, and technologies related to health and security.

EIB President Nadia Calviño highlighted the unanimous support of EU Member States for these financing initiatives, underscoring the EIB's role in advancing Europe’s strategic priorities.

Brussels is working to retain start-ups and scale-ups, recognizing their importance for the continent's future, and is proposing regulatory simplifications to enhance competitiveness.

Despite Europe founding more start-ups than the USA, a significant funding gap exists, with U.S. companies receiving 70.5 billion dollars in early-stage funding in 2024 compared to just 16 billion euros in Europe.