The European Investment Bank (EIB), the house-bank of the European Union, is lending EUR 70 million for 15 years to the City of Prague which will direct the funds to the municipal agencies to finance a variety of urban facilities and services. This is the second EIB loan for financing urban infrastructure in Prague, since EUR 50 million were granted in 1999 for a first phase of investments.
The new loan to the City of Prague brings total EIB financing in the Czech Republic since 1993 to some EUR 2.8 billion. The largest schemes financed so far are the modernisation of the main railway lines, the extension of the motorway network, upgrading of secondary roads, the telecommunications network, environment-friendly measures in several coal-fired power stations in northern Bohemia and the reconstruction of infrastructure damaged by floods in northern Moravia. A large number of small and medium-scale industrial and tourism ventures, as well as some smaller municipal infrastructure and environmental schemes were financed through several global loans (credit lines) to Czech banks.
Since 1990, the EIB has lent nearly 16 billion Euro for projects in the ten Central European Accession countries.