Spain: EUR 200 million for human capital investment in Castilla y León
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted a EUR 200 million loan to the Castilla y León Region to finance its investment in RDI, heritage conservation and educational and social facilities. The loan agreement was signed in Valladolid this morning by the President of the Government of Castilla y León, Juan Vicente Herrera, EIB Vice-President Magdalena Álvarez and the Region’s Finance Minister, Pilar del Olmo.
The loan will provide EUR 200 million towards financing a set of projects grouped together under the “Human Capital in Castilla y León” programme, whose overall cost will be EUR 450 million.
The investment programme has three main components: social care, education and cultural heritage. The first involves the refurbishment and construction of care facilities for the elderly and disabled. The second centres on RDI and the refurbishment, enlargement, construction and equipping of various educational establishments in the region. And the third consists of the different schemes under Castilla y León’s cultural heritage plan, mainly involving the restoration of historic buildings.
The loan was approved by the EIB’s Board of Directors on 13 December 2011. Its main advantage is its maturity of up to 20 years, which is far longer than the average currently offered by commercial banks.
This new operation is a further example of the close collaboration between the EIB and the Castilla y León Region, which goes back to 1989 and has enabled the Region to obtain EIB loans worth some EUR 1.6 billion over the past 23 years.
