Barcelona, 15/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - The EcoFin Council reached a compromise solution for the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean Bank, after a meeting that lasted until the middle of the night in Barcelona on Thursday, chaired by Rodrigo Rato and in the presence of European Commissioner Pedro Solbes. It decided in favour of the initial creation of a "Facility" within the European Investment Bank, giving itself a year, following the launch of this Facility, to decide on whether or not to create a Mediterranean subsidiary of the EIB.
In conclusions adopted at the end of the debates, the EcoFin Council notes, "the need to stimulate private sector development in out Mediterranean partner countries, in order to facilitate a higher level of economic growth consistent with the growing labour force in the region". The EcoFin Council backs "the Presidency's objectives and agrees on the need to enhance Mediterranean partnership and financial assistance towards our partners in the Barcelona Process, and takes note of EIB estimates of 2 billion euro per annum of net lending and risk sharing commitments to the countries of the area by 2006, including a growing share of private sector projects". The Council goes on: "on the basis of the work so far undertaken, the EcoFin Council considers that the most efficient option for immediate implementation is establishing a reinforced Euro-Mediterranean Investment Facility within the EIB, complemented with a Euro-Mediterranean Partnership arrangement and an EIB representative office located in the area. On the basis of the evaluation of the Facility performance, and taking into account the outcome of consultations with our Barcelona Process Partners, a decision on the incorporation of an EIB majority owned subsidiary dedicated to our Mediterranean Partner Countries will be considered and taken one year after the launch of the facility".
European Commission President Romano Prodi welcomed "this step in the right direction". The principle is there and what is important is that people on both sides of the Mediterranean "invest and work together", he commented. For Commissioner Solbes, it is a question of "an optimal solution". Among those most reticent to the idea of creating a new fully-fledged Euro-Mediterranean Bank as such, alongside the United Kingdom was Germany, whose Finance Minister Hans Eichel stressed the advantages of the formula chosen: the cost should be "modest" and the decision on the creation of a subsidiary will be taken in the light of an "open analysis", he said. Spain, France, Italy and Portugal backed the project of a Euro-Mediterranean Bank, but finally rallied around the compromise. "There was no unanimity and there never was one", Rodrigo Rato acknowledged, stressing that ministers took a "pragmatic decision" in Barcelona.
The EIB has provided for granting 6.4 billion euro in loans and venture capital over six years to the Mediterranean countries, or close to double the funds granted these past few years.