On 13 June 2022, a visit of the Commission for Economic Policy (ECON) to the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group took place in Luxemburg. ECR members Pavel Branda, Deputy Mayor of the municipality of Rádlo, Czechia, and Rob Jonkman, Alderman of the municipality of Opsterland in the Netherlands, took part in the meeting.

The meeting was chaired by the EIB Vice-President, Lilyana Pavlova, with whom our members had fruitful discussions and exchanges of views, as well as with other senior EIB officials. 

Ms Pavlova welcomed the participants and highlighted that the EIB is firmly committed to supporting Ukraine and the Ukrainian citizens. Almost EUR 700 million have been provided so far by the EIB to Ukraine. Ms Pavlova also made reference to the good cooperation to date between the EIB and the CoR. 

Mr Rob Jonkman asked what the EU can do to better support small municipalities like his, what funding opportunities are available, and how municipalities can take advantage of them. This sparked a debate in which the EIB answered that there is a new focus on cohesion in the programming and, more specifically, that the intention is to increase cohesion co-financing by the EU from 30% to 45% by 2025.

During the second session, there was another exchange of views about the EIB's response to the war in Ukraine, in which Mr Pavel Branda stressed the need to find ways to help provide financial support to the countries suffering most as a result of the refugee crisis. "The unprecedented crisis resulting from the hideous war of Russia against Ukraine has caused expenses that amount to 0.4-0.6% of Czech GDP. The EIB must help us find a way to offset these costs", pointed out the ECR member.