The EU budget approximately equals to 1% of European GDP annually. To generate a significant growth impulse, it is important to use the EU budget in an effective way, which maximizes its impact via leverage. Increased lending by the EIB, as well as project bonds, are ideal instruments for these aims, as is increasingly recognized. A key challenge is to deploy such instruments on a meaningful scale and do that rapidly, as it is so urgent to re-start growth, as well as to channel them towards efficient investment.