At the 2017 Cities Forum in Rotterdam on Tuesday 28 November, the European Commission and the European Investment bank (EIB) announced the launch of Urbis (Urban Investment Support), an advisory service that will help cities to access funding more easily to support their urban development.
Cities can struggle to find funding to implement social inclusion, urban regeneration or energy efficiency policies - actions that are frequently seen as excessively risky or too small-scale by the markets, the institutions explain in their press release. Furthermore, financing urban programmes is particularly difficult due to their cross-cutting nature.
The aim of Urbis is to help cities to devise, plan and implement their investment strategies through advisory services on a case-by-case basis, the Commission and the EIB explain. This service will be provided by experts from the EIB and JASPERS, the technical assistance partnership between the Commission, the EIB and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Urbis will also help cities to benefit from the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) and cohesion policy funds.
The service will launch in the second half of 2018. The Commission states that the initiative will feed into its reflection work on the future of European finances (see EUROPE 11818). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)