Margrethe Vestager has vowed to take more risk at the European Investment Bank if she becomes its president, arguing the lender’s conservative approach will be insufficient for the green transition and reconstruction of Ukraine.
The former EU competition chief described the EIB, the world’s biggest multilateral lender, as playing an “increasingly strategic” role for the union in her first interview since stepping down from the European Commission in order to campaign for the top job at the bank.
Vestager said accelerating funding to rebuild Ukraine even as the war was still ongoing would be one of her priorities. “I am looking for a mandate from the governance of the bank for it to be faster and in doing so can be even more relevant,” she told the Financial Times.