On Tuesday 6 February, the Board of Governors of the European Investment Bank approved a total of €6.5 billion of new financing for 36 projects in 17 European Union countries and schemes in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It should be pointed out that it also gave the green light to the €1.5 billion financing for the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
The TAP pipeline will connect Turkey and Southern Italy by crossing through Greece and Albania and going under the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the connected infrastructure projects (together with the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) which will connect the Azeri Shah Deniz-2 Pipeline in the Caspian sea and the Turkish border by crossing through Azerbaijan and Georgia, and the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP, which crosses Turkey) in the Southern Gas Corridor project that aims to deliver gas from central Asia to the EU.
In a press release, the EIB stated that this is, “an initiative identified by the Council of Ministers, the European Commission, and the European Parliament as a strategically important component within the EU’s energy policy (Project of Common Interest)”.
The EIB also proved other financing initiatives in the energy sector, including renewable energy projects such as the loans approved for a new 17MW wind farm in Lower Austria, construction of a hydropower plant on the Nenskra river in Georgia, modernisation of distribution networks (in Spain and Italy), improving reliability of and construction of a new waste to energy plant in the Scottish city of Dundee.
The EIB has also improved loans for sustainable urban development, including sustainable infrastructure projects and initiatives to reduce energy consumption in European cities, as well as a $2 billion initiative to transform the global green bond market in countries that are vulnerable to climate change. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)