European Investment Bank lends EUR 360 mln to Romania for priority projects

The European Investment Bank (EIB) lends EUR 360 million priority projects under 2014-2020 EU Operational Programmes aimed at fostering growth in Romania and extending provision of advisory services to national authorities to improve project implementation and absorption of EU Funds, according to a release of EIB.

This loan will support the Romanian Partnership Agreement with the EU for the 2014-2020 programming period, focusing on investments in the areas of energy, environmental improvement, Research & Development and Innovation (RDI), Information and Communication Technology (ICT), employment, education and social amenities. This loan follows on from the EUR 1 billion National Strategic Reference Co-Financing Loan for transport and environmental projects provided under the 2007-2013 programming period and the EUR 300 million loan for environment sector projects under the Large Infrastructure Operational Programme during the 2014-2020 EU programming period, which was signed at the EIB’s headquarters in Luxembourg on 16 June 2016.

At the same time, the EU bank has signed two Project Advisory Support Service Agreements worth EUR 19 million, with the National Public Procurement Agency (ANAP) and the Ministry for European Funds respectively.

“The agreements signed today will help to fulfill the EU bank’s mandate, namely to provide lending, blending and advisory services in all Member States. These comprise a crucial set of actions for ensuring sustainable future economic growth in the EU – actions which have already proven successful in many Member States and which the EIB is committed to implementing extensively in Romania. This EIB loan will co-finance priority public infrastructure projects with a total value of some EUR 7.7 billion, with strong expected economic growth effects under several EU Operational Programmes (mainly comprising RDI, ICT and social projects), and will underpin further structural transformation in the labour market by improving skillsets, ” says the EIB vice-president Cristian Popa.

Georgiana Bendre