Luxembourg, 04/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank is launching Italy's six-month Presidency of the European Union with a loan to Regione Marche. The EU's financing institution is advancing EUR 100 million to finance the regional component of projects of Community interest. This loan will help to underpin schemes included in the EU Structural Funds 2000-2006 and in other Community programmes implemented in the Marche region (Leader, Interreg, Equal, European Social Fund).
This is the EIB's first direct loan to an Objective 2 region and follows similar operations mounted in Objective 1 regions. The loan, which will have a 25-year term, represents the second tranche of a EUR 450 million credit line approved by the Bank at the beginning of the year. The first EUR 250 million, disbursed in February, was directed towards financing the third phase of reconstruction operations in the Marche region following the 1997 earthquake. In the coming months, the EIB will deploy the remaining EUR 100 million in support of the regional authority's investments under its development plan. The Region's investment programme encompasses support for private entrepreneurship and the craft industry, infrastructure and environmental works (water and waste management, development of protected areas) and measures to help diversify the local economy (incentives for the tourism sector, cultural heritage schemes, improvement of social services).