The European Commission’s competition department will hold a “Reality Check” meeting on 28 April 2026 to discuss how EU state aid rules affect the work of national promotional banks.
National promotional banks are publicly backed institutions that finance projects in areas where private funding may be limited, the Commission noted in a release on Tuesday.
Focus on State aid rules and EU funding tools
The meeting will examine “good practices” in the banks’ activities and possible bottlenecks linked to State aid rules, the Commission said.
Discussions will cover obstacles and good practices in implementing risk finance schemes under several EU rulebooks, including the General Block Exemption Regulation — a framework that allows certain types of aid without prior Commission approval — as well as the Risk Finance Guidelines and the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework.
DG Competition stated it will also present its evaluation and ongoing review of the EU’s Guarantee Notice, and discuss barriers national promotional banks face when implementing InvestEU — an EU programme that uses guarantees to support investment.
Representatives from member states’ national promotional banks, international financial institutions implementing InvestEU and relevant EU associations have been invited to attend.
