On Tuesday 18 July, the board of the European Investment Bank (EIB) approved new financing totalling €12 billion in support of new investments around the world in 63 projects supporting transport, energy and internet, amongst other things.
The EIB will award loans for a total of €5 billion to 14 projects in the transport sector, including loans to build metro lines in Paris (€1.5 billion) and Bangalore (€500 million), to support urban railway projects in Liège, Hanover, Bremen and Tunis, improve port facilities in Hamburg, support road and motorway facilities in Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia and Bosnia and a create new toll system for heavy goods vehicles in Slovenia. The EIB will also grant €546 million to renew fleets of aircraft using regional lines operated by KLM and Air Nostrum.
The EIB will also lend a total of €4.3 billion to projects in sustainable energy, including support for projects in onshore wind power, hydroelectricity and the installation of smart meters in Italy and to projects in energy efficiency, solar, wind power and urban heating in France. Fresh EIB funding will also support the reinforcement and extension of the gas distribution network in Ireland and Spain and the development of renewables in India.
Loans for a total of €1 billion will fund projects to improve water infrastructure in Portugal, Italy, Spain, Egypt and Morocco.
Other loans totalling €480 million will support broadband internet access and improve communication, with investments in favour of broadband infrastructure networks in four regions of France and Germany and mobile banking in Ethiopia.
The EIB will also support non-term investments aiming to improve education, housing, research and healthcare (improving infrastructures of the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, the construction of a regional hospital in Breda and affordable housing on brownfield sites in Belgium, France and Poland.
Loans for a total of €2 billion will also be granted to investments of SMEs in Austria, Croatia, Greece, Poland, Spain, Germany, Serbia and Paraguay.
Finally, the EIB will lend €506 million to support investments in industry and new-generation treatments in the animal health sector in France and the production of automotive glass in Morocco. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)