(June 29): The European Investment Bank will provide an unprecedented €3 billion loan to Airbus SE as the European Union pushes ahead with plans to bolster its technological sovereignty amid intensifying competition from the US and China.
The first €1 billion tranche, signed Monday in Brussels, will support Airbus’s research, development and innovation programme in France, Germany and Spain, helping advance the company’s technological capabilities in commercial and defence aviation, the EIB said in a statement.
The €3 billion commitment represents the largest financing package ever approved by the EIB for a corporate borrower. The EU’s funding arm has expanded lending in recent years to sectors that Brussels considers strategic, including defence, critical raw materials and clean technology, as the bloc responds to Russia’s war in Ukraine and growing trade tensions with its largest economic partners.
The EU has increasingly relied on loans and guarantees to stretch its common budget after exhausting much of its fiscal capacity to address a growing list of priorities, from strengthening industrial competitiveness to supporting Ukraine. At the same time, member states remain divided over negotiations for the EU’s 2028-2034 budget, which the European Commission aims to conclude by the end of the year.
EIB president Nadia Calviño said the loan, approved about six months after Airbus submitted its request, “shows that Europe can move with speed and at scale to support its champions".
“The highly competitive terms and extended flexibility grant us the maximum optionality to manage our balance sheet, minimise the cost of carry and sustain our long-term investments in aerospace innovation,” Airbus chief financial officer Thomas Toepfer said in a statement.
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