Sign in / up

back to article European Investment Bank tosses €25m to MariaDB

The European Investment Bank has decided MariaDB Corporation is worthy of €25 million funding under the European Commission’s Investment Plan for Europe. The Plan is often referred to as the “Juncker Plan”, reflecting its status as a pet project of European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, who wants more investment in …

COMMENTS

Post your comment
House rules Send corrections
Add to 'My topics' unstar *
  1. Len
    Headmaster

    Quite a neat concept, the EIB.

    For those who don’t know what the European Investment Bank is, a very brief introduction.

    It is a very neat concept of essentially an investment bank like every other but with a twist. One of its objectives is to make a profit, like all investment banks. The difference is that its primary objective is supporting things that are of strategic importance to the EU.

    They won’t invest in loss making projects that happen to be in the European interest, but they do select their profitable investments based on what is good for the EU and its direct partners.

    That is why you see them invest in infrastructure (from asphalt to digital), energy independence (just last year they invested half a billion euros in a Scottish wind farm) and industries that are considered of strategic importance to the EU economy. That is probably how the investment in MariaDB is seen, why should practically all companies creating database technology be American? We must surely be able to do that ourselves…

    22 0 Reply
    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Coat

      Re: Quite a neat concept, the EIB.

      "For those who don’t know what the European Investment Bank is, a very brief introduction."

      oh, I thought you meant the "Excellence In Broadcasting" network (Rush Limbaugh)

      but Rush's network IS "quite a neat concept"

      (getting coat now)

      0 2 Reply
  2. HmmmYes

    Why not fork Postgresql?

    EUgresql?

    1 0 Reply
    1. Len
      Reply Icon

      There is nothing stopping you creating a EuroSQL or something as a fork of Postgresql. The question is why.

      MySQL was originally European and the acrimony that led to the fork to MariaDB didn't start until it was bought by Oracle. Until Postgresql is bought (if that is even possible) by a company with questionable practices I don't necessarily see a reason for it. And without enough reason (or enthusiasm) forks don't tend to live very long.

      8 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        PostgreSQL cannot be "bought". The project has some specific policies that prevent one entity assuming too much control. It's possible for one company to lock people in with proprietary extensions, but that wouldn't be PostgreSQL as such.

        2 0 Reply
      2. Lars Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        Happy

        @Len, are you mixed up with "bought" and "forked", if it's open source it can be forked. Bought or not is outside my knowledge.

        0 0 Reply
  3. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    "just last year they invested half a billion euros in a Scottish wind farm"

    What Reaction Engines could have done with that kind of money....

    Instead they got £50m from George Osbourne about 3 years late with strings attached and had to find a partner before they got the money (instead of after, which seems to have been in the original terms but somehow got turned around). Hence BAe buys a 20% stake for a paltry £20m.

    The EIB does indeed sound a very good thing for Europe.

    So of course the UK will have nothing to do with it.

    5 0 Reply
    1. Khaptain Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Coat

      Re: "just last year they invested half a billion euros in a Scottish wind farm"

      Shouldn't that be the DK - The Divided Kingdom

      8 1 Reply
    2. streaky
      Reply Icon

      Re: "just last year they invested half a billion euros in a Scottish wind farm"

      The UK is a large investor in the EIB (we put up the same capital as Germany and France). We get little back from it. I'd assume when we leave the EU we'll pull all future funding - and if they behave themselves we won't recall all those loans.

      Re: Reaction Engines funding - you don't think we've given the world enough shit for gratis without throwing that in too? Plus RE Ltd is well funded enough.. For a company without a functioning product they're making plenty of bank. Plus FWIW BAE systems is a great fit for them - besides making aircraft they're positioned to take advantage of first use (military) sales.

      1 5 Reply
      1. Len
        Reply Icon

        Re: "just last year they invested half a billion euros in a Scottish wind farm"

        The UK is a big EIB shareholder because share percentages are based on economic weight. Hence France, Germany, Italy and the UK all own 16.1% of the shares. The UK is not just one of the biggest share holders, it is also one of the biggest receivers of investment.

        "EIB investments in the UK economy came to EUR 6.9 billion in 2016, making the country the 5th largest recipient of EIB loans last year. Infrastructure projects accounted for 47% of total investments, while environment claimed 36%. Innovation and support to smaller businesses in the UK claimed 14% and 3% respectively. Over the past five years (2012-2016) the EU bank has invested over EUR 31.3 billion in the British economy.

        The total investment of the EIB Group (the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund) in the UK in 2016 was EUR 8.1 billion."

        Source: http://www.eib.org/projects/regions/european-union/united-kingdom/index.htm

        As for Brexit implications, the UK can't officially remain an EIB shareholder as only EU member states are allowed. That said, I would expect the relationship to be very gradually wound down as the UK would not be able to afford it if the EIB would withdraw all its open loans to the UK in one go. I could imagine a scenario where no new investments were made in the UK but the existing loans would be paid back to the EIB over decades.

        7 0 Reply
        1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
          Reply Icon
          Coat

          "Brexit implications..the UK can't.. remain an EIB shareholder..only EU member states are allowed. "

          Since the EIB and the EIF are both EU institutions how the UK disengages from them will no doubt be on the (very long) list of stuff-to-do-to-withdraw-from-the-EU.

          Also didn't CMD say the UK would honor it's funding commitments to the EU to 2020 (EU funding cycles are in 5 year blocks) come what may?

          Of course now that May has come she could just say that a verbal contract ain't worth the paper it's written on.

          0 0 Reply
  4. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
    Happy

    Stop horsing around!

    And now some other news about Finland in today's news...

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-39853880/the-unusual-sport-girls-in-finland-love

    2 0 Reply

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

Forgotten password ?

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like