EU finance ministers will soon appoint a new president of the European Investment Bank (EIB). Following two six-year terms, the incumbent, Werner Hoyer, will step down, and a new captain will take the helm of the world’s largest multilateral financial institution. The new president comes at a critic...

When the EU adopted its seven-year budget in 2020, few predicted the eruption of a full-scale war two years later at its borders. By the end of 2023, the EU will have provided military, economic and humanitarian support to Ukraine to the tune of EUR35.2 billion since Russia’s invasion. But with spir...

The European Union (EU)’s arsenal of development finance instruments comprises grants, budget support, blends of grants and loans, guarantees, and trust funds. But little attention has been paid to its macro-financial assistance (MFA) tool. Since the 1990s, it has been deployed to help countries in ...

The recent Spring Meetings of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shone a light on the enormous and enlarging gulf between developing countries’ needs and what high-income countries are currently offering. Already constrained by the economic aftershocks of COVID-19, low- an...

Despite increased capital 2022 was a particularly risk-averse year for EIB Global. On paper at least, the bank intends to increase its risk profile and become a development bank. Whether that change materialises remains to be seen.

The new year brings with it a host of challenges for the EU. In a global race for strategic influence, the EU will need to make rapid choices and respond to these challenges. At stake is its own credibility as a major actor in international development. 

The case for multilateralism could not be clearer. It points to the many global problems that the world faces, which even the most powerful states cannot handle on their own. Containing global pandemics and mitigating climate change are tasks that require global cooperation. And yet, the future of t...