Today at the Web Summit 2020, the European Investment Bank Group (EIB Group) launched a new financing instrument to support artificial intelligence companies across Europe. The co-investment facility of up to €150 million will allow the EIB Group to invest alongside funds backed by the European Investment Fund (EIF) in companies that are active in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector and in technologies that directly complement AI, such as Blockchain, the Internet of Things and robotics.

Europe’s artificial intelligence sector has a multibillion-euro funding gap compared with the United States and China. The facility launched today targets this gap. It complements and builds on EIB and EIF expertise in the sector, developed through the existing €100 million Artificial Intelligence/Blockchain pilot under InnovFin Equity and direct EIB financing for AI companies through its venture debt instrument. The new instrument is part of a larger initiative of the EIB Group and the European Commission to support the development of Europe’s digital future in areas such as high performance computing, quantum technologies and cybersecurity, to name a few.

“The potential of AI is enormous. Today we can already see the initial impact of AI in many areas of our day-to-day lives, but it will be the defining factor for the way we work, study and live in the future,” said EIB Vice-President Teresa Czerwińska, responsible for innovation and digitalisation. “If Europe wants to stay competitive and shape the conditions of AI development and use, while ensuring European values are respected, it needs to embrace AI and lead its development. That is why I am very proud of the new instrument we have launched today. By using our resources and combining the expertise and market access of the EIB and the EIF we are pioneering new ways of financing AI, and helping to encourage more investment in this important sector.”

EIF Chief Executive Alain Godard said: “Artificial intelligence is a key component in a technological revolution that we are already witnessing. There is strong market demand for co-investments in this sector. The EIB’s expertise in assessing individual equity-type investments and the EIF’s market reach and ability to leverage strongly on the fund managers in our portfolio active in the AI domain will ensure that the facility is deployed efficiently.”

European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, said: “Europe has all it takes to become a hub for cutting-edge developments in Artificial Intelligence. We have the talent and a wealth of industrial data – both of which will give us an important comparative advantage in AI if we use them wisely. We are putting a framework in place to leverage our strengths and build trust – including through clear and predictable rules. The co-investment facility announced today will further support companies so that they can grow in the EU thanks to the design and the deployment of trustworthy AI.”

The new funds will be available in the European Union and in Horizon 2020 associated countries and are expected to be deployed during the next four years. By collaborating with private investors, the EIB Group expects to support approximately 20-30 small and medium-sized companies. The focus will be on early and growth-stage companies investing in the development of breakthrough AI applications. The resource allocation to potential co-investments in companies will be considered on a first come, first assessed basis and on the merits of the proposal. By assisting fund managers investing individual tickets of over €1 million in high-growth European companies the new instrument will complement the EIF’s existing fund activities. Additional information on the AI Co-Investment Facility can be found here.

InnovFin Equity is part of InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators, a generation of EU financial instruments and advisory services developed under Horizon 2020 to help innovative firms access finance more easily. InnovFin Equity provides equity investments and co-investments to or alongside funds focusing on early-stage financing of enterprises operating in innovative sectors covered by Horizon 2020, located or active in the European Union or in Horizon 2020 associated countries.

EIB finances Worldsensing

• • The EU bank supports the start-up’s R&D strategy, focused on innovative growth and market expansion.

• • The company’s product Loadsensing increases reliability, efficiency and safety of critical infrastructures through monitoring within mining, construction and rail.

• • The project is supported by the Investment Plan for Europe and is expected to create 50 new highly skilled jobs in the R&D sector.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) will provide a €10 million financing to support the R&D strategy of the Spanish start-up Worldsensing, a widely recognised Internet of Things (IoT) pioneer that focuses on designing IoT solutions for monitoring sensors and operates in more than 60 countries. The EIB long-term and advantageous financing of Worldsensing will support the company’s innovation efforts aimed at increasing its production capabilities, developing a portfolio of new products and at enhancing the company’s commercial and distribution network.  The agreement was announced today at Web Summit by EIB Vice-President Ricardo Mourinho Félix and Worldsensing CFO David Deprez.

Thanks to the EU bank support, the Barcelona-based start-up will further develop the Loadsensing product portfolio, a battery-powered, wireless, wide-area data transmission solution, to  monitor in near real-time the status of infrastructures, improve efficiency and prevent disasters. The company’s monitoring solution collects sensor data of critical infrastructure, including tailings dams in the mining sector, thus improving the safety of workers that normally collect this data manually and the communities that often live near these sites. Moreover, the EIB backing will enable Worldsensing to not only help preserve monuments in cities and to monitor the status of urban infrastructures, but  will also create safer work environments and address the lack of infrastructure resilience through predicting landslides, floods, infrastructure fatigue and collapse.

EIB Vice-President Ricardo Mourinho Félix, who is responsible for the Bank’s operations in Spain, highlighted: “Preserving our cultural heritage, creating safer work environments and monitoring the status of our infrastructure are only some of the results that can be achieved using Worldsensing’s technology. This is a very good example of a project whose impact will improve our day-to-day life, wellbeing and security. EIB is pleased to support the company’s RDI strategy to further develop its next generation monitoring solution and wide range of important applications. Boosting this type of cutting-edge technologies is critical for the competitiveness of the European economy, not only to face the COVID-19 crisis but also to address Europe’s long-term challenges. The Web Summit is the ideal place to announce these ground-breaking projects.”

Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, said: “This agreement between the EIB and Spanish start-up Worldsensing, supported by the Investment Plan for Europe, shows how technology can be put at the service of society. Thanks to the new financing, Worldsensing will develop a solution to monitor remotely the status of critical infrastructure like bridges and railways: helping to prevent disasters and save lives.”

David Deprez, Chief Financial Officer at Worldsensing, said: “The EIB investment will enable us to accelerate our solution development. As a market leader in the space, we see safeguarding critical infrastructures as a mission that Worldsensing is uniquely positioned to deliver on,” said Deprez. “At this point in our growth, the EIB funding will help us to expand our global footprint and continue driving infrastructure resilience and safety through our partner network.”

Some recent examples of projects where Worldsensing’s technology has been applied include new infrastructure projects like the expansion of the Paris metropolitan underground system, the metro tunnel construction monitoring of the U5 metro line extension in Frankfurt (Germany), and monitoring water wells across one of the largest open pit mines in the world (Chile).

The EIB is financing this RDI project through a venture debt operation backed by the European Growth Finance Facility (EGFF) – a programme loan under Investment Plan for Europe. It is a financing instrument used by the EU bank that supports leading companies in innovative sectors. Since it was launched in 2016, this initiative has granted over €2 billion in financing for projects in areas such as robotics, artificial intelligence and biomedicine. The project will help create 50 new highly skilled R&D jobs in Worldsensing’s headquarter, located in Barcelona (Spain).

Background information:

EIB venture debt

The EIB’s venture debt product is a financing instrument that supports startup and fast-growing innovative companies in cutting-edge technology sectors. It combines the advantages of a long-term loan with a remuneration model based on the company’s performance. Venture debt transactions help strengthen the borrower’s economic capital without diluting the shares of existing investors. The product, developed four years ago in response to market needs, is backed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the financial pillar of the Investment Plan for Europe.

Worldsensing

Worldsensing is a global IoT pioneer. Founded in 2008, the industrial monitoring expert works with over 270 engineering partners in more than 60 countries to provide safety through critical infrastructure monitoring in mining, construction, rail and structural health. The company is a member of the EIT RawMaterials, initiated and funded by the EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology), a body of the European Union, and has recently joined the European Raw Materials Alliance.  Worldsensing has more than 80 employees and offices in Barcelona, London, Los Angeles and Singapore and investors include Cisco Systems, Mitsui & Co, McRock Capital and ETF Partners, among others.

About Web Summit

Web Summit is an annual technology conference with more than 70 000 attendees held in Lisbon, Portugal. It is considered one of the largest and most important tech events in the world.

The current procedure for the approval of active substances in pesticides “raises concerns” according to the EU Ombudsman, who outlined several recommendations for measures to improve the approval process and increase its transparency.

The new conclusion of the EU watchdog, published on Wednesday (2 December), evaluates the way the European Commission approves ‘active substances’ used in pesticides. 

It concluded that “where EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) identifies critical areas of concern or does not identify a safe use, the Commission should seek clarifications from EFSA before approving the active substance in question, in accordance with the precautionary principle”.

The Ombudsman also asked for more transparency in the decision-making process and clarification on how the Commission gets to its conclusion on safe use while there is no data available. 

For an active substance in a pesticide to be approved for the EU market, the producer must first submit an application to EFSA.

EFSA then carries out a scientific risk assessment, designed to provide the basis of the European Commission’s approval or the conditions of the approval decision.

The EU watchdog investigated this procedure following a complaint filed to the Ombudsman’s office by Pesticide Action Network Europe (PAN Europe) in 2013, in which the NGO denounced what they considered to be unlawful approvals of active substances in pesticides by the European Commission.

In particular, the Ombudsman inquiry looked into two issues.

One was the Commission’s practice of approving active substances for which EFSA, the EU body in charge of the scientific safety assessment, had identified either no safe use or critical areas of concern.

The Ombudsman also revisited the Commission’s practice of approving substances for which additional data confirming their safety must be submitted at a later stage, a method known as ‘confirmatory data’. 

While the Commission maintained that its practices comply with the applicable legal provisions, it listed changes and improvements it has made to address the issues raised and informed the Ombudsman of several measures designed to improve the approval process and increase its transparency.

The EU watchdog is now closing the inquiry with three suggestions to the Commission to ensure that it approves substances based only on uses confirmed to be safe by EFSA, that the approval process is fully transparent, and that its use of the confirmatory data procedure is further restricted.

While the conclusion is not legally binding, it notes that with the commitment laid out by the Von der Leyen Commission in the flagship food policy, the Farm to Fork strategy, to take action to reduce by 50% the overall use of and risk from chemical pesticides by 2030, the Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, expects that the Commission will follow up satisfactorily on her suggestions”.

Hans Muilerman, chemicals coordinator for PAN Europe, said that “PAN Europe welcomes this long-awaited decision from the EU Ombudsman and demands the European Commission to get back on track with EU pesticide laws, and to make up for the lost time by embracing the Farm to Fork objective aimed at reducing by 50% the use of pesticides”.

“PAN Europe estimates that about 200 active substances that represent a danger for the EU environment and biodiversity have been authorised by the European Commission in an unlawful way, and in some cases, with complete disregard for assessments by the scientific authority EFSA, which had identified them as ‘unsafe’,” he added.

The campaign group added that, despite pledging to reduce the number of confirmatory data derogations in its preliminary response in 2016, the Commission continued using the derogation method “extensively”, with 55% of the approvals for the year 2019 alone. 

Géraldine Kutas, director-general of the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA), agreed that there are areas for improvement mostly in the better implementation of the 1107 regulation and “keeping to the timelines is something that the process would benefit from”.

“The demand for further explanation is also a welcomed suggestion. Anything that helps people understand better the approval process for the use of pesticides and biopesticides will be beneficial,” she told EURACTIV.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic] 

The European Union has made it clear to Britain that unless there is a breakthrough in talks by Friday it may become impossible to avoid massive trade disruptions on 1 January, The Irish Times reported citing a source close to the ongoing talks in London.

“Even if we get a deal in 10 days time, if we run down the clock too much, there is a very real risk that the deal can’t be ratified in time. We need to put an end to this somehow”, the source noted, adding the disruption is more than probable in the event of a failure to allow enough time for the deal to be duly ratified by the European Parliament.

The source noted it would last for as long as the negotiations continued.

The position echoes a statement made the other day by British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who stressed that the extent of the disruption under a no-deal scenario would depend on how the Europeans move forward.

The comments came as frictions spiked between member states and the EU negotiating team, with a group of bloc countries led by France warning that they would prefer a no-deal option over an accord that would prioritise Britain’s interests over theirs.

France and the Netherlands are deeply concerned chief EU negotiator Barnier could well go beyond what they can accept in a bid to reach a deal, while the negotiator has suggested he needs more flexibility to win Britain over, according to diplomatic and official sources.

Not at Any Cost

“Obviously an agreement would be good to have but not at any price”, an EU diplomat said, as cited by The Irish Times.

Bernd Lange, a German MEP in charge of the European Parliament’s trade committee was briefed by Barnier on Wednesday as a member of its UK task group. Lange said that he was less optimistic a deal could be reached now than previously, arguing that given the facts he had at hand no deal appeared at first glance to be the better option.

“To be open and frank, I’m really upset about the procedure. There is no possibility for the European Parliament, member states as well, to have a proper scrutiny of the agreement. This is really, really going from tragedy to farce and this is really quite unique in the history of trade agreements in the European Union”, Mr Lange said. 

“This is really the end game, and that’s also clear for the British side”, he stressed.

Likewise, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, asserted last week that London would by no means sacrifice its interests merely for the sake of a deal becoming a reality.

No Deal ‘Won’t Lower Political Temperature’

Yet, according to Julian King, the UK’s last European commissioner and a former ambassador to Ireland, a no-deal option is the least favourable one for all the parties involved.

“For my former colleagues in the commission and across the EU, it’s time they also faced up to some of the realities of the fallout from a no-deal. Extra barriers to trade would cut in both directions. No deal on fishing rights won’t help the fishermen in Ireland, Belgium, or northern France, and it won’t lower the political temperature around the issue”, he wrote in an op-ed for The Irish Times.

He went on to point out that a no-deal outcome would bring with it major disruptions, “internally and internationally”, as it will lead to “the inevitable imposition” of tariffs and quotas on trade between Britain and the EU, as well as between Britain and Northern Ireland, which would come on top of all the rest of the restrictions to trade like customs and sanitary checks.

Stalemate in Talks on Post-Brexit Ties: Sticking Points

Talks between the United Kingdom and the European Union have intensified over recent weeks as the end of the Brexit transition period – 31 December – draws closer. Speaking on Monday, European Commission spokesman Daniel Ferrie said that there is “no possibility” of extending the transition period beyond the current deadline.

The negotiations remain stuck on fisheries, with each side only ready to cede a maximum of 20 percent of current stocks to the other, according to a source briefed on the matter. Britain insists access should be decided on individually, on a regular – annual – basis.

The country, which formally exited the European bloc on 31 January 2020, has reportedly tabled a proposal to review the original withdrawal agreement, including fish quotas, in five or 10 years, in a last-ditch effort to talk the EU into reaching a compromise on the matter.

Separately, there has been an impasse between Brussels and London for months over other divergences, namely, level-playing field conditions — the set of common rules and standards designed to prevent businesses in one country from undercutting their rivals in other countries, as well as governance.

If no trade deal is agreed upon, EU-UK economic ties will fall under World Trade Organisation rules starting in 2021, with the latter including conventional customs tariffs and full border checks for goods travelling across the English Channel.