Brussels, 21/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) announces a EUR 5.5 million loan to the ARTE television channel for expanding the technical and production facilities at its new headquarters in Strasbourg. This loan will underpin ARTE's investment in keeping pace with technological developments in traditional and digital broadcasting of television programmes and serve to finance the installation of two production studios. The Bank is advancing this loan to ARTE under its Innovation 2000 Initiative (i2i), set up by the EIB Group to bolster the development of a knowledge-based, innovation-led European economy. To date, EIB Group support for the audiovisual sector runs to EUR 690 million and particularly involves new production facilities and equipment for television channels (Retevision, Danmarks Radio, ARTE); assistance for audiovisual production in France (Coficiné and Cofiloisir) and the United Kingdom (BBC Worldwide);