Abstract: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) required a swift and effective economic intervention. As the world`s largest multilateral lender, the European Investment Bank (EIB) was uniquely positioned to provide such support. This article demonstrates how the EIB leveraged the COVID-19 crisis to consolidate its role in European Union (EU) external development finance through institutional layering and the acceleration of earlier conversion processes without formal changes to its Statute thereby expanding its geopolitical influence in the Global South. Drawing on a historical institutionalist perspective, it compares the evolution of the EIB´s lending practices and instruments before and after the pandemic, assessing the continuity of earlier institutional structures. It shows how initiatives such as EIB Global and the extension of green finance to non-EU countries reinforced the Bank´s external role. Rather than signalling rupture, the Bank´s response reflects a deeper logic of continuity, in which incremental adaptation entrenched its strategic positioning in global development finance
