The EU bank

Mr Bernard Derosier, President of the North General Council, and Mr Philippe de Fontaine Vive Curtaz, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), signed today, 17 December 2010, in Lille a EUR 200m finance contract to provide the region with 30 new or renovated collèges (lower secondary schools) which are accessible to young people with restricted mobility and equipped with appropriate, high-performance IT facilities. The total project cost is estimated at EUR 477m.

The EIB's contribution to this project will help to implement four key measures in the fields of education and environmental excellence:

• the construction and renovation of 17 collèges for children of secondary school age;
• optimisation of the energy efficiency of 13 collèges by applying HQE standards with a view to substantially reducing their energy consumption;
• computerisation of all collèges with the provision of 9 200 IT workstations (the equivalent of 307 classrooms), including the replacement of 2 800 of the oldest workstations over a 5-year period;
• improvement in the accessibility of collèges to young people with restricted mobility. 182 collèges in the Department are already concerned by this decision.

This is a large scale-project which will ultimately benefit over 16 000 students. The principal advantage of this project is that it underpins the educational objectives of teaching teams including greater accessibility and equality of opportunity in an environment that complies with the latest energy-efficiency and environmental standards. Particular emphasis has been given to the colleges forming part of the “Ambition to Succeed” network.  8 of the 23 collèges covered by this network are included in the finance contract with the EIB.

Mr Philippe de Fontaine Vive, EIB Vice-President, welcomed the signature in the following terms: “I am very pleased that the EIB has teamed up with the North Department to upgrade the region’s collèges, as part of a project that will have a direct impact on education and the living and working conditions of young people. Secondary and vocational education is one of our priorities as it paves the way for the future.  It provides every young European with a profession and therefore the means to integrate into society. It is vital for a region’s economic, social and human development.”

This provision of this loan ties in with the EIB's ongoing priority action in France. In 2009, EUR 400m was channelled into the education and training of young people. The EIB is, for example, supporting the construction and renovation of 33 lycées (upper secondary schools) and other educational establishments in keeping with HQE standards in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region.  At European level, total lending in the education and pre-university training sector over the past five years adds up to EUR 7.6 bn.

Note to editors:

The EIB is the bank of the European Union. Its remit is to provide mainly long-term loans for viable private or public investment projects, aimed at furthering the EU’s integration, cohesion and development objectives, broken down into six priority policies: economic and social cohesion; protection of the natural and urban environments; research and innovation; support for SMEs; trans-European transport networks and support for secure, competitive and sustainable energy. In 2009, it provided EUR 70bn of funding in the European Union, an increase of 36% compared with total lending of EUR 51.7bn in 2008. In the same year, in order to help the economy tackle the financial crisis, it advanced a total of EUR 79bn in support of local authorities and businesses both inside and outside EU.