GERMAN ENERGY TRANSITION LENDING ENVELOPE

The Lending Envelope is dedicated to co-finance investments of regional/municipal utilities in Germany in their electricity distribution and transmission networks, co-generation facilities, their district heating networks and heat supply facilities.

The proposed Lending Envelope would be implemented through sub-operations covering investments in electricity distribution and transmission networks, co-generation facilities, district heating networks and heat supply facilities. These sectors have the potential to help promoters to achieve their climate targets, improve the safety and reliability of quality of service, to continue fulfilling the standards required by the national regulators, to enable the connections of new system users, to replace obsolete hardware and software, and to improve the operational flexibility of energy systems. The sub-operations are expected to include mitigation and adaptation measures contributing to the EIB's Climate Action and Environmental Sustainability objectives; however, this has to be assessed in detail at the level of each sub-operation. The investments should normally comprise standard mature, reliable and widely used technologies in the relevant sectors.

Some of the infrastructure components of sub-operations could fall under Annex II of the EIA Directive (EIA Directive 2011/92/EU as amended by Directive 2014/52/EU), which requires the competent national authority to determine the need for an environmental impact assessment (EIA). It is however likely, in analogy to operations with similar scope previously financed by the Bank as stand-alone operations, that none of the schemes expected to form part of the scope of a sub-operation would meet the requirements for an EIA. Nonetheless a condition will be included in the finance contracts for sub-operations requiring that promoters complete any EIA or nature conservation area impact assessment and receive approval from the competent authorities prior to allocating the Bank's funds to the scope of investments of a sub-operation, and that copies of the relevant documents, including the consents, are provided to the Bank. The infrastructure components forming the scope of a sub-operation are expected to have limited residual environmental impact. Where and if applicable and based on a risk-based approach as defined in the Bank's Environmental & Social Policy, the requirements of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive 2011/92/EU as amended by Directive 2014/52/EU, Birds Directive 2009/147/EC and Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC will be checked during appraisal of the respective sub-operation.

The Bank will require the promoters to ensure that the contracts for the implementation of each sub-operation have been and will be tendered in accordance with the applicable EU procurement legislation, Directive 2014/23/EU / 2014/24/EU / 2014/25/EU as well as Directive 92/13/EEC or Directive 89/665/EEC as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the EU, with publication of tender notices in the EU Official Journal, as and where required.