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News from 2020-04-20 / Group

Joint Statement by the CEOs and presidents of Europe's leading National Promotional Banks and the European Investment Bank

On Friday, 17 April 2020, the CEOs and presidents of the five leading National Promotional Banks and Institutions (NPBIs) from France (CDC), Italy (CDP), Spain (ICO), Poland (BGK) and Germany (KfW) as well as the EU (EIB) exchanged views on the corona-related challenges for Europe and the national economies. In their joint statement, they emphasise that the promotional banks have each set up extensive national promotional programmes and also agree that they will continue to cooperate throughout Europe to combat the consequences of COVID-19.

Building on a strong European spirit and solidarity derived over the many years of collaboration, the CEOs of BGK, CDC, CDP, ICO and KfW together with the EIB President exchanged their views on the responses taken to address the economic effects of the COVID-19 crisis. The focus has been on the promising results of the first measures taken across member states and at EU-level, with a view to learning from each other and ensuring the complementarity of the different programmes.

Our common mission is to support the economy and thus to contribute to sustainable growth and jobs. This is more needed than ever in the current crisis.

Given the enormous challenge posed by COVID-19 requires that we mobilise resources at unprecedented levels; that we mobilise them quickly and deploy them effectively. Our commitment to support our economies with billions of euros along with all the other European NPBIs is testimony to this.

In the past, we have already shown our ability to work closely together to address economic crisis by acting counter-cyclically and helping to mitigate the effects of a downturn. We are determined to prove it again. It is vital for our economies that European financing tools are designed in a way that is complementary to national ones. It is also crucial that financial circuits are as short as possible to ensure that every euro is available on the ground where needed as soon as possible.

Ensuring this will benefit in particular SMEs and midcaps, which need liquidity and working capital to bridge the lock-down. Many of them benefit from the emergency measures taken by national institutions: moratoria on existing liabilities, credit guarantees of 80% and more in limited cases, new tools for supporting the most affected sectors, etc.

Our mission is also to provide our economies a long-term vision. Beyond the emergency measures we have taken, we will also cooperate on the necessary economic recovery. Long-term investments will be at the heart of the economic recovery and strengthen employment, innovation and sustainability.

In line with the above several sectors of our economies like infrastructure - notably social infrastructure (health, education, affordable housing), digital infrastructure as well as energy infrastructure – transport, tourism, research and development will need enormous investments to recover competitiveness, develop strategic independence and strengthen the resilience of the European economy. The European Commission's InvestEU Programme is expected to be a major element in this future economic landscape together with other national and EU policy measures.

Following this exchange among our institutions, we decided to:

  • Further develop our co-operation and focus on synergies;
  • Explore possible common initiatives;
  • Explore the need for new tools along with the existing ones, notably at European level.

We believe that Europe is strong enough to overcome this crisis. We have shown our robustness and willingness to make every possible effort for the economic recovery. We will keep on coordinating our initiatives going forward with the aim to help Europe to come out of this crisis stronger and closer than before.

Cooperation with European promotional banks

KfW is cooperating with many national promotional banks and institutions in the EU.

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Special Topics "Europe"

Statements, documents and videos on KfW's European commitment

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KfW Group

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60325 Frankfurt

Germany