Funding Ukraine weapons would put EU lending arm on 'wrong track', outgoing chief warns

FILE PHOTO: Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank, attends the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London, Britain June 21, 2023. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool/File Photo

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The head of the European Investment Bank (EIB) has warned his soon-to-be-announced successor that bowing to pressure from some EU capitals to fund weapons for Ukraine would put the bank on the "wrong track". Werner Hoyer will step down from the EU's powerful lending arm at the end of December after 12 years turning the EIB into one of the world's largest providers of climate finance.

Its balance sheet runs over a half trillion euros and its next head, tipped to be either Spain's Finance Minister Nadia Calvino or Denmark's EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager, will face a raft of challenges.