Brussels, 28/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the Council reached a political agreement on the external mandate of the European Investment Bank (EIB), granting priority to supporting countries on the borders of the EU. EIB President Philippe Maystadt told the press that he welcomed this "very good, well-balanced decision". At a level of 33 billion EUR in the initial proposal of the Commission, the sum total of funding available for the Bank's actions outside the EU was finally cut down to 27.8 billion EUR for 2007-2013 (25.8 billion, together with an additional envelope of 2 billion).
The Finance Ministers also approved the compromise put forward by the Finnish Presidency, which would bring things a little closer to the lowest option defended by the majority of countries (EUROPE 9280). Whereas previous discussions had also focused mainly on regional ventilation, the greater share (12.4 billion EUR) of the sums available goes to the neighbourhood countries, the 12 States of the Barcelona process (Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and the Palestinian Authority) and those of the East (Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, together with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, where the EIB will cooperate with the European Reconstruction and Development Bank). The countries eligible for pre-accession (Croatia, Turkey, Macedonia, but also Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo), get 8.7 billion EUR. The envelope for Asia has been set at 1 billion and the one for Latin America at 2.8 billion. Hitherto limited to support for European businesses investing locally, the mandate of the EIB has been extended, so that loans in favour of projects related to the environment and energy security in these countries will also be allowed, even if these investments are not made by European companies. South Africa, which is not part of the Cotonou agreement and therefore cannot claim the funding available to the ACP countries, is granted a specific envelope of 900 million EUR. This sum would have been larger, given the number of high-quality projects planned in the country, Mr Maystadt pointed out. A formal decision of the Council is expected before the current mandate expires at the end of January 2007. (ab)