7. From Crisis to Crisis, Can Europe Count on National Promotional Banks as Silver Bullets?

The great financial crisis of 2008–2009 was a game changer for National Promotional Banks (NPBIs) in Europe, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine crisis reinforcing this shift. The ‘Juncker Plan’ shed a light on the investment gap and demonstrated that a dynamic European policy was possible. Thanks to the InvestEU programme, actors at the European level, such as the EIB Group, and the national level (via NPBIs and Financial Institutions) thrived in their specific role of fostering essential long-term investment throughout our continent. With this in mind, we need to have a different look at certain tools within practical accounting rules by integrating both positive and negative externalities.