The European Commission and the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) have signed an InvestEU guarantee amendment whereby NIB becomes implementing partner also for Norway and Iceland. The addition of these two countries increases NIB’s total lending capacity under the Invest EU programme to EUR 994. This is expected to, in turn, mobilise public and private investments of around EUR 3 billion in total.

Following the amendment, the EU guarantee under InvestEU can now be used by NIB to support projects in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Sweden.

The extension of the NIB InvestEU offering to Icelandic and Norwegian project promoters was made possible by the accession of Iceland and Norway to the InvestEU Fund. Both countries signed contribution agreements with the European Commission in May 2023, making them the first non-EU countries participating in the programme.

NIB will now be able to provide financing in Iceland and Norway under its InvestEU debt financial product across the two policy windows of Sustainable Infrastructure and Research, Innovation and Digitisation.

The InvestEU guarantee aims to boost the risk-taking ability of its implementing partners, to facilitate the mobilisation of public and private investments aligned with the EU's policy priorities.

The NIB President and CEO André Küüsvek said: “With Norway and Iceland joining the InvestEU, the guarantee now extends across all Nordic and Baltic member countries of NIB. This expansion enables us to enhance our financing activities, particularly in driving the green transition. Our focus will be on renewable energy, energy efficiency, industry decarbonisation, and transport sector improvements, alongside innovation and digitalisation initiatives. NIB’s strategy is firmly committed to embracing higher risks and increasing loans, especially to small, medium-sized, and mid-cap companies. The EU guarantee aligns perfectly with this strategic direction, providing an ideal mechanism to support our objectives.”

Background

The InvestEU programme provides the EU with crucial long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It will also help mobilise private investments for the EU’s policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub, and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund will be implemented through financial partners who will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of EUR 26.2 billion. The entire budgetary guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus aims at mobilising more than EUR 372 billion in private investments.

The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) is the international financial institution of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. The Bank works towards a prosperous and sustainable Nordic-Baltic region by financing projects that improve the productivity and benefit the environment. NIB finances private and public projects in and outside the member countries. Read more at NIB and InvestEU.

Source, Nordic Investment Bank