The European Investment Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation have renewed their investment partnership for a further five years. The EIB announcement identifies clean energy, connectivity, critical minerals and Ukraine’s recovery among the priorities, extending a framework through which the institutions can develop and finance projects together.
EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle and JBIC Deputy Governor Toshio Oya signed the memorandum in Bangkok on 15 October 2026. The renewed arrangement builds on a partnership established in 2018.
The €2.5 billion figure describes earlier financing
The EIB says it had signed financing agreements worth approximately €2.5 billion for projects involving JBIC as of October 2026. That is a record of existing cooperation, rather than a newly announced €2.5 billion fund under this memorandum.
The distinction is important for assessing what has changed. A renewed cooperation framework creates opportunities for future financing; it is not the same as approving every project, fixing a new spending envelope or announcing that the entire amount has already been disbursed.
Examples of previous cooperation include the Eavor Loop geothermal project in Germany and NeuConnect, a 1.4 GW electricity interconnector between Germany and the United Kingdom. They illustrate the partnership’s existing involvement in energy infrastructure.
Cooperation extends beyond the European Union
The geographical scope may cover the EU, Asia, Africa and neighbouring countries. Alongside energy, the priorities encompass transport and digital connectivity, resilient supply chains and economic security, as also reported by The Brussels Times.
The institutions plan to explore co-financing, innovative financing structures and regular exchanges on potential projects. Ukraine’s recovery is one of the areas for further cooperation, rather than a separately quantified allocation in the announcement.
The framework joins development finance with supply-chain policy: projects may be considered both for their direct economic contribution and for their role in making energy, connectivity or essential materials more reliable.
For prospective projects, the next concrete milestones will be individual financing decisions and agreements. The memorandum sets the direction of cooperation, while those later decisions will establish which investments proceed and on what terms.
