Luxembourg, 22/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank has just opened its representative office in Warsaw, the first one in the new member countries. In a press release, the EIB explained that “The establishment of the EIB Warsaw office will improve the EIB's responsiveness to the financing needs of public and private clients and strengthen cooperation with the local institutions and partners”. The EIB office will also accommodate experts from JASPERS, a joint technical assistance programme set up by the EIB, the European Commission, and the EBRD to assist the countries of central and Eastern Europe in developing high quality projects which will receive support from the EU's Structural and Cohesion Funds.
The EIB's operations in Poland cover a wide range of economic sectors ranging from basic infrastructure, manufacturing and services, including support for SMEs through local financial institutions, but also education and the knowledge-based economy. Overall, these operations contributing to increase the competitiveness of Poland have grown to a total of more than €13 bn since 1990. The EIB's investments in Poland reached some EUR 2 bn in 2006. The address of the office, headed by Michal Lubieniecki, is as follows: EIB Warsaw Office, Plac Pilsudskiego 1; PL-00078 Warsaw; Tel: +48-22-310 05 00; Warsaw@eib.org. (ol)