The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and European Commission have signed an InvestEU guarantee agreement worth up to €450 million. The agreement will unlock EBRD finance of up to €2.1 billion for investments in sustainable infrastructure, green economy and digitalisation, as well as innovation and research in the EU.
The EBRD will use this guarantee to mobilise investments across a wide range of sectors, including transport, mobility, energy, infrastructure, digital connectivity, circular economy, and low carbon technologies. It will also support investments in bioeconomy, food, tourism, research and digitalisation, critical raw materials value chain solutions, life science, smart cities, sustainable blue economy, affordable social housing and ICT. These investments will help the EU to achieve its broader strategic objectives of securing the green and digital transitions.
The projects will cover Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia.
With this agreement, the EBRD becomes an InvestEU partner. InvestEU provides an EU budgetary guarantee to partners to increase their risk-taking capacity and therefore contributes to mobilising public and private investment in line with the EU’s policy priorities.
Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, said: “InvestEU is supporting investment across the EU that will help us to deliver on our common priorities, notably for the green and digital transitions. The EBRD has a long history of channelling investment to regions where it is most needed. I am delighted that, with today’s agreement, the EBRD has become an InvestEU implementing partner. Together, we can supply the necessary investment to make crucial projects in key sectors realise their full potential to support economic development and create high quality jobs.”
The EBRD’s President, Odile Renaud Basso said: ”The EBRD is a very strong partner of the EU and this agreement will allow us to push forward our common agenda for stronger EU economies and catalysing private investments in crucial areas such as green, connectivity and innovation. We are truly delighted for the beginning of our InvestEU cooperation.”
Executive-Vice President for an Economy that Works for People, Valdis Dombrovskis, said: “This agreement comes at just the right time to better equip the EU to tackle the immediate economic and social consequences of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The EBRD has been our reliable partner for decades. Now, with the EBRD becoming an implementing partner under our flagship investment programme InvestEU, we will bring our cooperation to a new level, also generating investments across a range of sectors for the longer term, in line with EU policy priorities.”
The InvestEU programme will provide the EU with crucial long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It will also help mobilise private investments for the EU’s policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub, and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund will be implemented through financial partners who will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budgetary guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.
The EBRD is a multilateral bank that promotes the development of the private sector and entrepreneurial initiative in 36 economies, including some EU countries. The Bank is owned by 71 countries as well as the EU and the EIB. The EBRD’s mandate focuses on fostering the transition towards open market-oriented economies and its investments are aimed at making the economies in its countries of operation competitive, inclusive, well-governed, green, resilient and integrated.
