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Werner Hoyer has had nights with very little sleep.
Sometimes he stayed up until four in the morning and watched CNN, says the President of the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The coverage of the storming of the Capitol in Washington did not let go of him, who went to school in the USA and studied there.
After all, he saved himself the trip to his office in the end;
after an event with a participant who subsequently tested positive for Covid-19, Hoyer had to stay in quarantine at home.
So it is a good thing that the summit of EU finance ministers on Tuesday will only take place via video anyway.
Hoyer will report to the ministers there on the financial situation of Europe's SMEs.
WORLD:
As a former State Secretary in the Foreign Ministry, you are familiar with foreign policy.
Could you ever have imagined something like the storming of the US Capitol?
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Werner Hoyer:
No, that really blew me away.
To be part of the enlightened, constitutional democracies - that is what defines the West.
Under President Donald Trump, however, there was little evidence of education, and the rule of law even seemed to be in acute danger recently.
I hope that things will change for the better now.
But until then I fear some bad scenes in Washington and elsewhere.
The ghost that Trump conjured up won't easily return to the bottle.
Queuing for the vaccination - and too few hospital staff
Long queues are currently forming at vaccination stations in many places in the United States.
Source: WORLD
WORLD:
What does that mean for Europe?
Hoyer:
We mustn't be naive.
The pitch will be different.
But future US President Joe Biden will start where he left off as Vice President.
Some of the bills that Trump held up to us came from his predecessor Barack Obama.
If we dream of strategic autonomy for Europeans, then we have to deliver.
And we also run the risk of populist excesses.
Scenes like the one in front of the Reichstag also make you pretty stunned.
We have to react resolutely, but with the means of the enlightened constitutional state.
Werner Hoyer has been President of the European Investment Bank since 2012
Source: European Investment Bank
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WORLD:
Reacting resolutely is a good keyword: Has Europe missed the start of vaccination?
Hoyer:
I don't like taking part in this debate.
Now all of them are amateur virologists and have always wanted to know that Biontech is the solution.
But the situation wasn't that clear ten months ago.
That is why it would have been a mistake if the federal government or the EU Commission had placed everything on one card with their orders and only ordered from one provider.
WELT:
The result is now that there is an effective vaccine from Europe that is vaccinated much more quickly elsewhere.
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Hoyer:
That has to do with the infrastructure of the states.
Something that is also often forgotten: we experienced a pandemic twelve years ago.
At that time, the EU countries ordered too much vaccine in the fight against swine flu.
The industry later got stuck on the bill.
So it is logical that the companies were more cautious this time.
WORLD:
Biontech was very well known in the EIB, you have been promoting the company for a long time.
Has the EU Commission simply ignored your expertise?
Hoyer:
We can only offer ourselves.
We don't order the vaccine ourselves. But we were and are always available.
We are now ready to support the financing of production capacities in order to create the conditions for larger order quantities.
WORLD:
Have Bayer and CureVac knocked on your door yet?
Hoyer: The
fact that the two companies want to cooperate now is a very interesting development.
But even the Bayer Group cannot set up such a complex vaccine production from scratch.
WORLD:
So you are ready?
Hoyer:
If someone wants financing from us, we of course have to carefully examine the project beforehand.
We always do.
At the moment everyone would like to get involved in the financing of such a project.
But ten months ago it was extremely risky to invest 100 million euros in developing a new vaccine.
For the private sector and private banks this would not have been possible without further ado.
We are proud that the EIB is doing its job in such a pandemic and doing something that the market cannot do on its own.
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WELT:
There were still delays at CureVac: In March, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised EIB funding of 80 million euros.
The first installment did not flow until autumn.
Wasn't the company so convincing back then?
Hoyer:
We have audit processes like other financial institutions, some of which are very in-depth.
They have to, because the money that we provide for such venture debt projects can be completely lost in extreme cases.
So we have to be convinced.
WORLD:
Then the commitment from Brussels simply caught you by surprise?
Hoyer:
No, we were in contact with CureVac beforehand.
But we always only grant our loans after thorough scrutiny, regardless of what third parties say.
The reputation of the EIB depends on it.
WORLD:
A few months after your loan approval, the German government joined CureVac.
Support from the EIB wouldn't have been necessary?
Hoyer:
That can be the case, but it doesn't have to be.
There are some things that the state would like it to be unable to achieve on its own.
Even for a country as large as Germany, it is good to work with European partners like us.
WORLD:
This pandemic is not the first, nor will it be the last.
What must Europe do to be better equipped?
Hoyer:
We have to be much more alert.
Covid-19 knocked us all off our feet.
Unfortunately, politics is already back in election campaign mode, which doesn't exactly help prepare for the next pandemic.
The past year also made it very clear that pandemics have to be thought global.
The idea that anyone can do their own thing is completely illusory.
Trump would also look old without the vaccine from Mainz.
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WELT:
So far, the rise of the European biotech industry has failed mainly due to the lack of funding.
Is that getting better now?
Hoyer: The
fact that Biontech and CureVac are so much in the spotlight will have a positive effect on the entire industry.
But the question is in fact: How can you help young companies in particular to take on greater risks without the state getting the idea that it is the better entrepreneur?
If the state suddenly says: I'll buy Biontech - then good night.
That is not the solution.
But risk sharing or support in the event of a loss can be a solution.
We have already successfully demonstrated this with the Juncker Plan in Europe.
WORLD: In
some cases, the third wave of the pandemic is already beginning.
Is the EU aid sufficient or does it have to be refilled?
Hoyer:
In mid-2020 I would have said that enough was definitely done, with all the bazookas, humming and whatever the capital cities have called their measures.
But now we are in the next wave of Covid measures, and how these will continue will determine how much the economies suffer.
Only when we know how great the damage is will we know whether the agreed assistance is sufficient.
But we also have to ensure that the funds that are there are drained quickly.
WORLD:
Do you see problems with the EU reconstruction fund?
Hoyer:
That the funds from the reconstruction fund could not flow out quickly enough is already an issue for us.
In order for the fund to work, it has to be properly implemented by the Member States, and governments will have to be very creative here.
We are already receiving inquiries from Member States asking us to help us use the Commission's funds.
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WORLD:
Which countries are the inquiries from?
Hoyer:
We are active in almost all EU countries with our consulting activities.
But of course there are differences between countries in terms of the ability to apply for and access EU funds.
Some have big problems getting projects to market.
Incidentally, this affects older member states as well as younger ones.
It is important to provide support here at an early stage to ensure that the money from the reconstruction fund is used sensibly.
WORLD:
Does that also affect Italy?
Hoyer:
Italy knows the EIB like no other EU country and we have worked closely with Italy for decades.
We can do something that other banks cannot: We not only grant loans, we also know how to link loans with EU funds, for example from the structural funds or the reconstruction fund, and we can provide technical and economic advice on projects.
Some Member States will need to work with us to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Recovery Fund.
WELT:
The EIB has long been accused of being very risk averse. That has changed. Is the EIB threatening to go the way of many Landesbanken that have ruined themselves with politically imposed loans?
Hoyer:
I don't have that worry at all.
We are in the service of politics, and that shouldn't be downplayed.
The EIB is supposed to support the political goals of the EU, which is why we have a different mandate than commercial banks.
Nevertheless, we have to behave just as professionally because we don't want to make any losses.
We don't get involved with anything politics imposes on us.
The mere fact that the representatives of the Member States on the Administrative Board continue to approve the projects and that 26 of the 27 Member States take a particularly critical look at each project ensures that we do not take any unnecessary risks.
WORLD:
The EIB plays a central role in the Green Deal.
At the same time, it finances motorways and airports.
How does that fit together?
Hoyer:
We are largely aligning our business with climate protection.
We will allocate half of our financing to climate and environmental protection-related projects by 2025.
In addition, since the turn of the year, all of our financings have been aligned with the climate goals of the Paris Treaty.
This means that no project may thwart the climate goals.
The expansion of a motorway is not necessarily a contradiction in terms if it increases productivity and helps to avoid traffic jams and other burdens.
We also finance investments that make airports more energy efficient.
But it is also clear that the requirements have become stricter.
We will no longer finance the construction of new major airports.
We have finished with such projects;
that is the past for us.
Werner Hoyer, 69, who was born in Wuppertal, has been President of the European Investment Bank since 2012. Before his move, the former FDP General Secretary was for a long time State Secretary in the Foreign Office, where he was involved in the negotiations around the Maastricht Treaty and NATO's eastward expansion. In 2019, Hoyer was named “Banker of the Year” for the EIB’s contribution to European stability.
The European Investment Bank (EIB), founded in 1958 and headquartered in Luxembourg, is intended to support the political goals of the EU Commission as an EU financing institution. This includes the Green Deal, but also vaccine development in the fight against Covid-19. The annual financing volume of the EIB with its 3,450 employees was most recently over 63 billion euros.