The European Investment Bank (EIB) lends up to EUR 131 million for rehabilitation and furnishing of about 1 400 pre-university schools all over the country.
EIB supports this education project for schools in rural (80 %) and urban (20 %) areas of Romania through the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth. The project constitutes the second phase of an important rehabilitation programme of pre-university schools in Romania; the first phase was launched in 1997 and covered 1 200 schools, co-financed by the World Bank and the Council of Europe Development Bank. The signing of the project will further pave the way for future long-term co-operation with the country in this sector to decrease the imbalance in access to education between rural and urban areas and between regions.
In general, the project will improve the learning environment all over the country and will contribute to the rationalisation of the network of schools and to the consolidation of part of existing school estate in dilapidated condition. It builds up the conditions for delivering good quality education and will consequently contribute towards increasing the stock of human capital in a pre-accession country, which is a critical determinant of economic prosperity, full employment and social cohesion. Elimination of the physical risk to occupants of damaged schools, reduction of utilities and maintenance costs and contribution to poverty alleviation are only some detailed impacts of this rehabilitation.
The project is an important part of the Romanian educational policy as defined in the Strategy for Development of Education and Training System of the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth. It is also in line with the priorities set out in the Accession Partnership and the pre-accession strategy agreed between Romania and the European Union, thus another step on the road to full membership in the Union. It will contribute to the attainment of the acquis communautaire and to the EU objective of promoting the development of a knowledge-based economy in today's EU Member States as well as in future members. The project is also supportive of EIB's core objectives of promoting urban regeneration, social inclusion, and poverty reduction.
It encourages Romania and the EIB to continue the close collaboration and conclude further agreements for the benefit of Romania's economy and population. It demonstrates that the EIB supports particularly those regions in Central Eastern Europe, which have larger burdens from the past than others.
The European Investment Bank, the financing arm of the European Union, finances projects which help implement EU policy in the present and future EU countries as well as in a number of developing nations around the world. The EIB is re-financing its lending by issuing bonds on the international capital markets. Due to its AAA' credit rating it is able to raise funds at the keenest terms. Being a non-profit institution, the Bank passes on these terms to public and private project promoters as well as partner banks.
Since 1990, the EIB has lent some EUR 20 billion to the eight Central European Acceding countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia) and the two Accession countries (Romania and Bulgaria). This makes EIB to the most important external source of finance for this region. In Romania, projects of in total EUR 2.7 billion have been financed since 1991.