This statement was made on February 5, 2026, in a letter to European Council President António Costa on the eve of an informal summit in Belgium.
The main objectives of the initiative are to mobilize capital. It is proposed to channel trillions of euros of Europeans’ private savings, currently held in bank accounts, into the real economy.
This will help create conditions for financing innovative start-ups and scaling companies within Europe so that they do not go to the US markets, the EIB head believes.
In addition, strengthening the EU’s sovereignty in defending its positions at the global level should play into the hands of the political and economic union of the member states. According to the financier, the arguments could be unified goals – to increase investments in energy, green transition, digitalization and defense (in 2025, the EIB has already increased the volume of lending to the defense sector by 4 times).
Calviño emphasized that in the current geopolitical instability, the creation of a single capital market is not just an economic objective, but a “superpower” for Europe, necessary to maintain its global competitiveness.
