Werner Hoyer, president of the European Investment Bank (EIB), and Staffan Nilsson, President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) agreed that long-term investment can significantly boost growth in times of crisis and constrained public budgets combined with private deleveraging. Both the EIB and the EESC agreed on the need to strengthen the EIB's relations with civil society, and the EESC already strongly supports the actions of the EIB.

EIB president Werner Hoyer and EESC president Staffan Nilsson called in a joint meeting held in Luxembourg on 19 December, for accelerating investments in the EU to facilitate structural change, and to put the EU economy on the path to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, and strengthen EU competitiveness as defined in the Europe 2020 Strategy. The EESC highlighted the need of success on the Europe 2020 strategy and the next Multiannual Financial Framework already in September 2012.

Both the EIB and the EESC agreed that unprecedented levels of investment are needed in areas such as infrastructure, SMEs, innovation and skills, energy and efforts to tackle climate change. The EESC strongly supports the actions of the EIB, which makes long-term finance available for investment in the real economy and in projects in key sectors that contribute to a job-rich, competitive and inclusive sustainable EU. Moreover, they agreed on the need to strengthen the EIB's relations with civil society.

The EESC has also called for a European "new deal" for growth, which would focus on major targeted projects in a few key sectors that are able to get the EU economy moving again in a relatively short period of time. The EIB would therefore welcome stronger links to the EESC in areas of common interest.