Press Release: FEMIP ministerial and strengthened Femip-Femise partnership: preparing the Mediterranean for the way out of the crisis

FEMIP, the financial instrument of the European Investment Bank for the European Union’s 10 partner countries in the Mediterranean, is strengthening its action to help the region come through the current economic crisis.

The FEMIP Ministerial Conference, held in Brussels on the margins of the EU finance ministers (EcoFin) meeting of July 7, examined the main operational priorities for 2009-11 and welcomed the high level of support for economic development that FEMIP was able to provide in 2008 despite a difficult economic context. Ministers in particular endorsed the contribution that FEMIP is making to support the objectives fixed in the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean summit declaration in Paris a year ago, notably:

Mediterranean Solar Plan: ministers took note of the initiative taken by EIB together with KfW and AfD to strengthen their cooperation with the aim of providing joint finance to projects with a value of EUR 5 bn in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy for five years, starting in 2010.

Maritime and Land Highways: the support being offered through a programme of studies into logistic centres in the Mediterranean ('Logismed') and support for investment in both infrastructure and means of transport.

Coordinating the planned 'De-pollution of the Mediterranean' on the basis of the reflections on sustainable development and impulses given at the Union for the Mediterranean ministerial in Paris on June 25 where the EIB played an active role in coordinating the interventions of financial institutions.