Vice-President Kakouris' areas of oversight include the cohesion policy; financing of economic and social cohesion; advisory services (EIAH and JASPERS); IT and data governance; EIB Global (pre-accession policy and the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF); development policy remains with Vice-President Fayolle and Vice-President Östros); financing operations in Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Western Balkans. Vice-President Kakouris is Alternate Governor of the EBRD and oversees future relationship with the United Kingdom, relations with the Vienna Initiative, the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) and the Strategy for the Danube region.
Czech Republic: Construction of Ostrava Concert Hall receives CZK 2 billion from the EIB
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending 2 bn Czech crowns (ca €84 million) for the construction of a state-of-the-art concert hall in the Czech city of Ostrava. The EIB credit covers most of the financing for the planned €115.5 million cultural landmark in Ostrava, the third-largest Czech city with a population of 318,000. Located in the northeastern Moravian-Silesian region, Ostrava is close to the village where renowned composer Leoš Janáček was born in 1854 and is where he died in 1928.