The European Investment Bank is lending EUR 20 million (1) to the City of Szczecin in northwestern Poland to upgrade municipal investments, particularly drinking water and wastewater networks. The EIB loan, which is granted for 20 years, will help the City to accelerate the implementation of its infrastructure programme and reduce pollution and health hazards, thus raising life quality for a population of some 400 000. The European Commission is also participating in the financing under its grant programme ISPA, specifically designed for environmental and transport schemes in the candidate countries.
Szczecin, near the German border and at the mouth of the Oder River to the Baltic Sea, has a booming economy which is putting more and more strains on its infrastructure, in particular water and transport. The Helsinki Commission for environmental protection in the Baltic Sea (HELCOM) has identified Szczecin Bay as one of the hot spots for its actions.
Since 1990 the EIB lent EUR 3.8 billion to projects in Poland, more than in any other EU candidate. About 1 billion went to Trans-European road and rail networks (TENs), with emphasis on upgrading major international road and railway axes. Telecommunications, gas and larger industry schemes also attracted substantial loans from the EIB. Small and medium-scale industrial investments as well as smaller energy or infrastructure projects are being furthered through global loans (credit lines) to commercial banks established in Poland. The EIB also helped rebuild infrastructure damaged during the 1997 floods in Silesia.
Since 1990, the EIB has lent EUR 13.5 billion to projects in the ten Central European EU applicants: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria. EIB plans to lend around EUR 4 billion per year in Central Europe over the coming years. In addition, the Bank is helping the western Balkans where projects were already financed in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
(1) 1 EUR = 4.03350 PLN, 0.613400 GBP, 0.87650 USD