PhD candidate University of Erfurt
Johannes G. v. Luckner is a doctoral researcher in law at University of Erfurt in Germany. Born and raised in Germany, he studied law in Frankfurt (Main), Rome and Florence. His professional experience is spread out over various areas, ranging teaching in a high school during a voluntary service in Panama, over diplomacy in the German Foreign Office (Embassy to Italy, Rome) to European politics in the European Commission (DG Justice, Criminal Law).
In his PhD, he works on differentiation in European law, especially on the enhanced cooperation mechanism.
How to unlock the European Investment Bank’s potential: four reforms
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the EU’s multilateral development bank. In this FEPS YAN policy study, the authors suggest four reforms that would help progressive policymakers to utilize unlock the EIB’s potential to play a greater role in the EU economy and its transition to a more resilient, climate-neutral, and progressive economy.
First, the authors suggest the EIB adopts more comprehensive lending targets based on social and environmental criteria. Second, they highlight the need for a stronger focus on equity-like instruments rather than debt instruments, especially in the ongoing response to the Covid-19 crisis. Third, they propose to strengthen the EIB’s accountability towards the European Parliament to ensure a legitimate political direction and democratic control of its activities. Fourth, they propose to convert the EIB’s retained profits into paid-in capital, unlocking up to €110 billion of additional lending capacity. To simultaneously accomplish increased democratic accountability, the authors suggest converting the EIB’s retained profits into EU capital and thus making the EU an EIB shareholder.
Read the paper:
How to unlock the European Investment Bank’s potential: four reforms
Political Mentor: EP Vice President and S&D MEP Pedro Silva Pereira
Academic Mentor: Carlo d' Ippoliti, Associate professor of political economy at the Department of Statistical Sciences of Sapienza University of Rome.
PhD candidate Kingston University London
