Europe’s fight against recession received a useful if modest boost on Tuesday when finance ministers agreed to increase the capital of the European Investment Bank, the European Union’s investment agency.

The bloc’s 27 ministers decided to raise the EIB’s capital by €67bn to €232bn ($295m, £198m) to help it fund “green technology” projects in the European car industry, make loans to small and medium-sized businesses, and accelerate the distribution of EU regional aid to central and east European member-states.