“We will help to ease the pain of Brexit,” Alexander Stubb, EIB vice president, told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung in an article published on 21 March.
The EIB, based in Kirchberg, is the EU’s economic development bank. Although it raises funds in the global capital markets, it is backed by explicit EU member state guarantees.
The European Commission estimated that Brexit will leave Europe with a hole of €10bn-€13bn, the German paper reported.
Stubb said raising the percentage of the EU budget used as guarantees from 3% to 5% would increase the EIB’s lending capacity from €4.8bn to €7.8bn.
“It would be too easy to say we could fill the Brexit gap” completely, he told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, but the EIB could help reduce the funding pressure.
Such a change would require approval by EU member state governments and the European Parliament.