EIB loan benefits historic Rome

Date:24/07/03

ROME is getting a €100-million facelift and Spanish infrastructure a €220-million boost, courtesy of the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union's Luxembourg-based financing arm.

The Italian capital will receive the first half of a €200 million loan for urban renewal projects, consisting largely of small- and medium-scale schemes in the transport, environment, education and social infrastructure sectors.

The credit line, part of the city's 2003-2005 investment plan, will be directed in particular towards projects to improve public transport networks, reuse brownfield sites for service activities and for the relocation of the city's administrative offices.

Cash will also go towards a subsequent conversion of prestigious historical buildings into cultural facilities.

The EIB and the Municipality of Rome are also discussing mounting another operation targeted at the social sector.

It would aim to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable segments of the urban population (the disabled, immigrants, the poor, the young and the elderly) and foster the social and economic regeneration of marginal and disadvantaged areas of the capital.

Since 1998 the bank has opened similar credit lines totalling more than l1 billion to the Italian municipalities of Florence, Bologna, Venice, Naples, Milan, Reggio Emilia, Rimini and Salerno.

Spain gets an improved tramway and port via the EIB.

The first €30-million tranche of a l175-million loan has been granted to Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valencia for financing the construction and commissioning of a tramway/light railway for the Alicante area.

The province of Alicante is classed as a priority region to receive the EU's structural funds.

A €45-million loan has also been granted to the Valencia Port Authority for financing the expansion of the Mediterranean port of Sagunto, to help it absorb a forecast increase in existing traffic, mainly due to the region's metallurgy industry.