The European Commission on October 8 raised €11 billion in EU bond issuance as part of its ninth syndicated transaction for 2024

This transaction, executed in two tranches, involved a €5 billion continuous EU bond issue maturing on December 6, 2027 and a €6 billion continuous EU bond issue maturing on October 4, 2039. The three-year bond was priced at 101.101% and has a held-to-maturity yield of 2.506%, while the fifteen-year bond was priced at 101.734% and has a held-to-maturity yield of 3.227%. Bids received exceeded €81 billion for the three-year bond and €85 billion for the fifteen-year bond. This means the bonds were oversubscribed by almost 16 and 14 times respectively.

The proceeds from this transaction will be used to finance EU action programs (mainly in the context of NextGenerationEU and support to Ukraine).

The Commission has now raised around €44 billion of its €65 billion funding target for the second half of 2024. A full overview of EU transactions executed to date is available online. A detailed overview of planned EU transactions for the second half of 2024 is also available in the EU financing plan. The next transaction, according to the indicative EU issuance schedule, is an EU bond auction on 21 October 2024.

The European Commission is authorized by the EU Treaties to borrow on international capital markets on behalf of the European Union to finance selected EU action programmes. It has an established reputation in the debt markets, thanks to bond issues it has carried out over the past 40 years. All European Commission publications are made exclusively in Euros. EU borrowing is guaranteed by the EU budget, while contributions to the EU budget constitute an unconditional legal obligation of all Member States under the Treaties.

Nikos Andritsos