News Summary

• Jean-Christophe Laloux is director general for EU lending and advisory operations at the European Investment Bank.
• He takes over the EIF, the bank group’s venture arm, on 1 January.
• The bottleneck has moved from early-stage innovation to scaling up, Laloux said.
• The EIF will focus on four areas where Europe still leads: AI, health and biotech, security and defence, and cleantech.
• On AI, Europe cannot afford to be left out, because it can lift productivity, he said.