To meet the challenges of energy and climate transition, Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday called on the European Investment Bank (EIB) to finance “all the low-carbon technologies at our disposal, including nuclear”, an energy that makes discussion within the bank.
Faced with the challenge of the release of fossils and while we are accelerating our European climate and energy transition agenda, we must now take the measure of the issues and make a lucid observation, affirmed the French President in a video message broadcast on the occasion of the EIB Luxembourg Annual Forum.
We must fully rely on all the low-carbon technologies available to us, including nuclear, while respecting national energy mix choices, and therefore support all of these solutions accordingly, insisted the head of the ‘State.
France must launch in the next few years the construction of at least six new nuclear reactors, a construction site at a staggering cost whose financing remains to be refined.
Support all solutions, including nuclear
However, nuclear power is an extremely sensitive subject within the EIB, which presents itself as the Climate Bank, underlined in early February the vice-president of the institution Ambroise Fayolle.
The EIB has financed two nuclear projects for eight years, one in Finland, the other in Slovakia, which were safety projects, the safety of existing nuclear facilities, not the construction of new reactors, Mr. Fayolle argued then.
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The bank’s board of directors is very divided on these issues, as the member states are in Europe, he said.
Based in Luxembourg, the European Investment Bank provides long-term financing (loans, guarantees, equity investments) for projects that contribute to the implementation of the priorities of the European Union, such as ecological transition or innovation.
The EIB group granted a total of 72.5 billion euros in financing in 2022, of which Italy was the first beneficiary with 10.09 billion, ahead of France and Spain tied (9.96 billion euros each) and Germany (6.61 billion).