Brussels, 15/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) announced on Friday 12 November that it is to provide the Slovak Republic with a loan of €1.3 billion for the implementation of projects receiving EU grant aid from the cohesion and structural funds. These investments have been identified as priorities under the Slovak National Strategic Reference Framework, for the programming period of 2007-13. The EIB support will partially cover the Slovak Republic's co-financing contribution and will also be available for project pre-financing needs before the corresponding grant contribution is eventually released by the European Commission.
The EIB loan will co-finance schemes under 11 operational programmes involving more specifically the development of: - infrastructure and regional accessibility; - a knowledge-based economy; - and human resources. All schemes will be implemented by 31 December 2015 in the Slovak regions covered by the EU convergence and regional competitiveness and employment objectives.
This is the second EIB loan of this type to Slovakia to co-finance projects supported by European Union Funds. The Bank previously provided a €95 million co-financing facility for the Slovak National Development Plan during the 2004-2006 programming period.
As this, the largest ever loan to Slovakia, was granted EIB Vice-President responsible for lending in Central Europe Anton Rop noted that the EIB “supports priority projects … (ensuring) the development of the Slovak economy by focusing, in particular, on investments helping Slovakia converge rapidly towards EU socio-economic and institutional standards”. (O.L./transl.rt)