EIB Group Invests a Record €9.6 Billion for Growth, Innovation and Climate Action in Germany

BioRefineries/Renewable Fuel Production Business News/Analysis European Union (EU)Feedstocks Funding/Financing/Investing Germany Government Resources Opinions Policy Resources water

February 01, 2025

Print This Article Share it With Friends

(European Investment Bank) • In 2024, the EIB Group raised its financing volume in Germany to €9.6 billion to further increase competitiveness.

It focused on investments in industry, such as the pharmaceutical sector, fibre optics and automotive suppliers.
Other key areas remain start-ups with innovative ideas for the green and digital transitions, and technologies and infrastructure for the energy and heat transitions.

In 2024, the activities of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group were centred around making Europe more competitive. To that end, the EIB Group approved over €9.6 billion in financing in Germany, compared to €8.6 billion in 2023. This is the EIB’s largest annual financing volume in Germany in the last 15 years, and the second-largest since it began funding projects in Germany in 1960.

In 2024, this supported total investments in Germany of €49 billion. Every €1 provided by the EIB Group unlocked €5 of investment. The EIB Group is made up of the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund (EIF), its subsidiary focused on start-ups.

"The EIB is a strong partner for Germany’s future," said EIB Vice-President Nicola Beer. “Our investments support businesses as they expand and become more innovative, use more renewable energy and cut energy consumption. This also strengthens local economies. We invest in making German industry competitive in the long term, in particular by expanding infrastructure that is crucial for the digital and green transitions. This applies to start-ups, medium-sized businesses and large companies. They can all count on our support, as can municipal utility companies and public transport providers. Together we are creating a successful and sustainable Germany."

Supporting the German economy

Against the backdrop of an overall decline in business investment, the EU Bank further increased its focus in Germany on boosting the competitiveness and innovative capacity of important sectors, including automotive suppliers and the pharmaceutical industry. It invested over €4.8 billion in businesses, mainly to further technological innovation, fund research and development (R&D) and finance small businesses. ZF received €425 million to develop new braking and steering systems for semi-autonomous driving. Bayer will receive up to €800 million for R&D on new pharmaceutical products for cardiology and cancer treatment.

In particular, large projects in the private sector have demonstrated that EIB involvement can mobilise private equity. EIB R&D loans granted to Bayer equate to around 30% of the project costs. The remaining 70% was provided by private banks or came from the company’s own cash flow, that is, from private sources. This underscores the EIB's impact as an instrument for crowding-in. The EIB acts as a quality label and thus encourages private equity investment in projects.

The EIB Group has further expanded its financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which it provides in cooperation with other banks. The EIB and the EIF help create portfolios with both public and private partner banks, making it easier for them to finance climate action and innovation by SMEs. One important project for SMEs in 2024 was backing a loan portfolio at IKB (Industriekreditbank) with over €200 million in EIB guarantees. In total, the EIB Group supported more than 10 000 SMEs in Germany last year, thus securing 390 000 jobs.

Digitalisation and innovation

In order to accelerate digitalisation in the German economy as a whole, the EIB is becoming increasingly involved in expanding fibre-optic cables – for example in operations with Deutsche Glasfaser and Deutsche Giganetz – in order to provide over one million more households with gigabit internet. A country-wide fibre-optic network is required to create equal business conditions in urban and rural areas.

Technological innovations will be crucial to achieve the objective of developing a carbon-neutral and competitive economy by 2045. The EIB, together with its subsidiary the EIF, finances start-ups from the very beginning and throughout the market development and growth phases, often with support from the InvestEU programme. Examples that stand out from 2024 include Eavor-Loop, a company that draws geothermal energy from deep layers of rock – as in a perpetual motion machine – in Geretsried, Bavaria, and Sunfire, a Dresden-based manufacturer of energy-efficient electrolysis systems for green hydrogen production.

The EIB Group also provides financing for innovative solutions in the transport sector: for example with a loan to mobility start-up Vay. The company offers a car sharing service with remote control, in which a "teledriver" drives the car to the customer. The customer then drives the car themselves, before leaving it to Vay to take remote control again.

Climate action

The EIB Group’s work demonstrates that competitiveness and innovation go hand in hand with sustainability. In 2024, we invested €5.2 billion in climate-related projects in Germany. The main aim of these operations was to expand renewable energy and improve energy efficiency, and in doing so boost decarbonisation and reduce energy costs for households and businesses.

With 56% of total investment in Germany going to climate action, the EIB also exceeded its goal of awarding at least 50% of all financing for climate in 2024. Among other projects, the EIB provided €1.2 billion to support RWE’s gigawatt offshore wind farm in the North Sea off the coast of Jutland, which will supply electricity to one million households. Investment in the climate and energy transitions also includes the implementation of the guarantee programme under the EU Wind Power Package: Together with Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, the EIB is providing framework loans totalling €2 billion to wind energy producers for the pre-financing of equipment for new wind farms. With these initiatives, we are supporting the supply of affordable electricity.

Support for municipalities

The EIB supports municipalities to develop key infrastructure, including electricity grids, transport and housing.

The slow expansion of power grids has slowed progress in the digital and green transitions. Significant investment in power grids is required to connect more local solar and wind power producers to the grid, and to enable consumers to connect heat pumps and electric vehicle charging stations. An important EIB project in this area is the €400 million loan provided to modernise and digitalise electricity grids of the TEAG, a grid operation consortium made up of 620 rural municipalities in Thuringia. The municipal utility company in Reutlingen also received a subsidy loan to expand the electricity grid and to support the heat transition.

The Bank is continuing to invest in sustainable transport in Germany. For instance, it provided €1 billion for new trains for the S-Bahn in Cologne.

Affordable housing is becoming an increasingly pressing issue in Europe and in Germany. As a result, the EIB supports municipalities to build additional housing, for example, in Bremen and in North Rhine-Westphalia. The EIB also supports efforts to modernise housing construction, to make it possible for housing to be built in a cheaper and more sustainable way using prefabricated modules in the future. One pioneer is the Berlin-based start-up Gropyus. It builds apartment buildings out of wood in an environmentally friendly way using a modular construction technique.

Strengthening the capital markets union

The EIB Group is also implementing new securitisation products. For example, it participated in the first public solar securitisation in Europe set up by Enpal, which can refinance its offer of solar loans for homeowners wanting to use renewable energy. This also serves to deepen the European capital market.

Background information

With an increase in financing volume to €9.6 billion, the EIB Group has continued on its ambitious growth trajectory for Germany in 2024. Three years earlier in 2021, the EIB Group invested €5.7 billion, followed by €6.6 billion in 2022 and €8.6 billion in 2023.

With regards to the EIB Group’s financing priorities, in Germany in 2024, projects for sustainable energy and natural resources received the most support, with €4.252 billion in financing, followed by innovation, digital and human capital with €3.182 billion. In the area of sustainable cities and regions, the EIB Group provided a further €1.092 billion in financing, as well as €1.083 billion for SMEs and mid-caps.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. It finances investments that contribute to EU policy objectives, by supporting digitalisation and technological innovation, as well as security and defence, agriculture and bioeconomy, social infrastructure and effective investments outside the EU. EIB investments also support the capital markets union.   

The EIB Group – which also includes the European Investment Fund – signed almost €89 billion in new financing for over 900 projects in 2024. These investments are expected to mobilise around €350 billion in investment, supporting 400 000 businesses and 5.8 million jobs.  

All projects financed by the EIB Group are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. The EIB Group does not fund investments in fossil fuels. We are on track to deliver on our commitment to support €1 trillion in climate and environmental sustainability investment in the decade to 2030 as pledged in our Climate Bank Roadmap. Almost 60% of the EIB Group’s annual financing supports projects directly contributing to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and a healthier environment.   

Approximately half of the EIB's financing within the European Union is directed towards cohesion regions, where per capita income is lower than the EU average. This underscores the Bank's commitment to fostering inclusive growth and the convergence of living standards.  READ MORE