The European Investment Bank is supporting projects that will be carried out by the Municipality of Bologna under the city's multiannual public works plan. Thanks to a EUR 50 million loan signed this morning in the Emilian regional capital, the bank of the European Union will provide nearly a third of the EUR 160 million to be spent under the multiannual plan.

Specifically, the projects concerned by the plan cover a variety of sectors: restructuring of public buildings and social housing, renewal and rehabilitation of the urban environment, sustainable transport, parks, open public spaces and other municipal infrastructure, including sports facilities.

The operation comes under the EIB's traditional financing activities and is the first to be signed with a major Italian municipal administration since 2012. In previous years Bologna used EIB finance – characterised by long maturities and low interest rates – many times for its development programmes. Between 1996 and 2011 four operations were entered into for a total of EUR 317 million.