InvestEU: Boosting the CEB’s social impact across Europe

The InvestEU Programme is a strategic EU ﬂagship initiative for 2021-2027, designed to mobilise public and private ﬁnancing in support of investment in sustainable growth, innovation and social cohesion.

Thanks to the backing of a single EU budget guarantee, together with dedicated advisory and technical support, InvestEU allows the CEB to reach a larger number of counterparts by reducing their risk proﬁle, strengthening project preparation, and enhancing the capacity of public and private promoters. It helps transform EU policy priorities into bankable, high-impact operations – particularly in areas such as social infrastructure, skills and access to ﬁnance.

The CEB is an implementing partner of the InvestEU Programme. With an allocated guarantee envelope of over €318 million from the European Commission since 2022, the CEB works with borrowers and supports projects it would otherwise be unable to take on. The increased ﬂexibility in terms of loan structure, tenor and borrower proﬁle has enabled the CEB to support lending, helping it mobilise €619 million in loans to date for social projects across its EU’s member countries. Of this amount, the CEB approved over €190 million in ﬁnancing under the InvestEU guarantee in 2025 alone, supporting projects in sectors such as affordable social housing, education, and healthcare, as well as promoting employment through microﬁnance and the social economy.

In 2025, the CEB strengthened its support for microﬁnance by launching a dedicated blending facility with the EU. The facility aims to develop microﬁnance operations, with the CEB’s current support focused on Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Romania. To do so, it combines CEB loans, backed by the InvestEU guarantee, with grants funded by a €10 million contribution from the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+). In addition, through its participation in the InvestEU Advisory Hub, the CEB is an advisory partner, providing technical assistance and advisory services to project beneﬁciaries.

With an overall budget of €13 million, the CEB’s InvestEU Advisory Hub role includes comprehensive project advisory services and capacity building activities, including training for microﬁnance institutions, market assessment and new project identiﬁcation within InvestEU’s Social Investments and Skills Window, as well as assistance and advice on the impact of displacements of people from Ukraine.