The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Greek Ministry of Economy and Finance signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Athens today to strengthen cooperation in financing sustainable urban development.

The Memorandum signed by EIB Vice-President Plutarchos Sakellaris and Mr John Papathanassiou, Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance, marks the intention to use JESSICA (Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas). JESSICA is an initiative of the European Commission and the EIB, with the contribution of the Council of Europe Development Bank, for sustainable urban investment and development supported by the Structural Funds of the EU. The Memorandum provides for the establishment of a JESSICA Holding Fund.

As the EIB Vice-President responsible for Greece, Plutarchos Sakellaris said: "Greece and Portugal are the first two European Member States to join forces with us and deploy EU Structural Funds in support of integrated and sustainable urban development projects. I am most happy that Greece is one of the pioneering Member States to adopt the JESSICA initiative, especially since more than 60% of the Greek population already live in cities". 

The JESSICA Memorandum with Greece comes two weeks after a similar agreement was signed with Portugal and follows agreements already signed by the EIB with the London region early this week and in October 2008 with the regions of Wielkopolska in Poland and Galicia in Spain. The Memorandum is expected to enhance cooperation between the parties with a view to identifying and prioritising potential demand, thereby improving the arrangements for promoting and implementing urban investment and development schemes.

JESSICA is a response to the request from several Member States and the European Parliament to give special attention to the need for renewal and/or regeneration of certain urban areas and is expected to enhance the few existing urban investment funds and contribute to the creation of    many new funds in all the regions of the EU supported by the Structural Funds, to finance integrated urban renewal and regeneration projects in pursuit of more sustainable urban communities.

JESSICA is focused on the promotion of sustainable investment and growth in urban areas. This initiative enables the EU Member States and their regions to use some of their EU Structural Fund allocations to make repayable investments in projects forming part of an integrated plan for sustainable urban development. In other words, the main objective is to transform Structural Funds into recyclable resources by encouraging municipalities, banks and private investors to develop partnerships and invest in revenue-generating urban projects. These investments, which may take the form of equity, loans and/or guarantees, are delivered to projects via Urban Development Funds and, if required for organising operations, Holding Funds. The Ministry and the EIB will be working together on identifying such projects. In Greece the contribution from operational programmes of the Structural Funds to JESSICA is expected to be about EUR 100 million.

Note for the editor

The European Investment Bank Group, the banking group promoting European objectives and financing European projects, provides capital investment aimed at modernising the economies of the Member States and the countries close to the Union.

In 2007, the European Investment Bank lent a total of EUR 47.8 billion for projects promoting the European Union's policy objectives. Finance for the EU-27 Member States represented 87% of its activities and amounted to EUR 41.4 billion. To fund its activities, the EIB raised an aggregate amount of EUR 55 billion on the international capital markets through 236 bond issues in 23 currencies. Owned by the Member States, the EIB (with its AAA rating) is the world's largest supranational issuer.

In 2007, the EIB's lending in Greece totalled EUR 0.8 billion ─ for transport, SMEs and, for the first time ever in Greece, for local authorities (Municipality of Athens and Kozani).

The Cohesion Policy Joint Initiatives have their origin in the partnerships established between the European Commission, the European Investment Bank Group and other international financial institutions that joined forces to launch JASPERS for technical assistance to the new EU Member States (EIB, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and KfW Bankengruppe in Germany), JEREMIE for improved SME access to finance (European Investment Fund - EIF), JESSICA for a sustainable urban environment (EIB and Council of Europe Development Bank) and more recently JASMINE for microcredit (EIB Group).

Urban population in Greece as a percentage of the total population

Year 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2005 2015
(forecast)		 2030
(forecast)
Urban population
(percent)		 37.3 42.9 52.5 57.7 58.8 60.1 61.4 65.2 72.4

UN Common Database (UN Population Division estimates)