The President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Dr Werner Hoyer, is taking part in political discussions in Vienna today and tomorrow, Friday and Saturday 26/27 April. Accompanied by EIB Vice-President Wilhelm Molterer, responsible for lending operations in Austria, Dr Hoyer is meeting with high-level Government representatives and representatives of the Austrian business community.
The programme includes talks with Dr Michael Spindelegger, Austria’s Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister for European and International Affairs, the Austrian Finance Minister Dr Maria Fekter and Austria’s Economy Minister Dr Reinhold Mitterlehner. In addition, President Hoyer is meeting with representatives of Austrian companies. The main topic will be the joint efforts to promote growth and employment in Europe.
“Austria is an important partner of the EIB, not only with respect to the financing of key projects in both the public and private sectors, but also in terms of Europe’s growth prospects. Austria’s strong commitment to youth employment, in particular, could serve as example for the whole of Europe." Dr Hoyer stated.
Finance Minister Maria Fekter pointed out, “The European Investment Bank is a long-standing partner of the public sector, banks and businesses in Austria and generally enjoys an excellent reputation. From an economic perspective, projects that contribute to innovative and sustainable growth are especially interesting.”
“Our cooperation with the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund on the counter-guarantee for the SME lender aws and financing for the Business Angel Fund has been very successful. It provides Austrian companies with better conditions for loans, guarantees and equity and helps us to support growth and jobs in companies”, said Economy Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner.”
Thanks to the capital increase approved last year by the EU Members States, as the Bank's shareholders, the EIB will advance over this year, 2014 and 2015 an additional EUR 60bn for employment and sustainable growth in the European Union. This will increase annual lending to EUR 65-70bn.
Volumes in Austria will therefore also expand over the next few years, whereby the country’s sector focus and economic approach are perfectly in tune with the priorities of the EIB: highly innovative projects, industrial research and development, key infrastructure schemes, renewable energy and SMEs will benefit primarily from the EIB funding.
In 2012, EIB lending for projects in Austria totalled EUR 1.05bn, with a heavy emphasis on financing operations in the sectors of transport, energy, research and development and innovation. Moreover, a substantial portion of the loans went to small and medium-sized enterprises.