The European Union announced on Thursday 28 February at the International Conference on Jordan ‘Jordan: Growth and Opportunity - the London Initiative 2019', additional support for the country.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has announced plans to provide €870 million in loans and grants over the period 2019-2020 for Jordan. €200 million in loans should go to the public sector and €600 million to the private sector, and €70 million in grants should go to various projects, particularly in the field of water, energy efficiency, support for SMEs and microfinance.
At the conference, the Jordanian government and the EIB signed a €65 million loan agreement to finance the improvement of water supply systems in the Deir Alla and Al-Karamah districts of the Jordan Valley, as well as the construction of a centralised wastewater collection and treatment network in the Deir Alla district. The project will benefit from an additional investment grant of €16.3 million from the Economic Resilience Initiative Fund (ERIF).
In a more abstract way, the Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, announced that the EU would “provide grants that will trigger loans”. “I expect that in the next one to two years we will be able to provide something that can trigger more than €1.6 billion in loans”, he explained. According to the Commissioner, the EU will also provide new instruments to guarantee risks for private investment in the country.
Mr Hahn also announced that the EU would increase its technical assistance to Amman to support it in the implementation of reforms. He considered that Jordan, “an anchor of stability in the region”, should be supported.
For her part, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, recalled that the Union had mobilised €2 billion to support Jordan and its people since the beginning of the Syrian crisis in 2011. She stressed that the EU was cooperating with Jordan in the field of security, including the fight against terrorism and support for border management, judicial reform and education. “Key investments are a mix between security, the economy, and education support”, she explained, adding that “it can cover all opportunities for young people”. “We want to invest in a country which is a key political partner for us in the region”, she concluded.
According to Commission figures, the EU is expected to provide, over the period 2014-2020, mainly through the European Neighbourhood Instrument, between €567 and €693 million, and more than €1.1 billion in assistance to the country to address the Syrian refugee crisis. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)