The European Investment Bank (EIB) is granting Aquafin, the company responsible for managing wastewater facilities and treatment in Flanders, and SPGE (Société Publique de Gestion de l'Eau), which is in charge of sewage treatment in Wallonia, a EUR 200 million loan each. This finance will enable both firms to continue their medium-term (2006-2008) capital expenditure programme.
The loan contracts were signed on 4 September in Brussels, at meetings organised jointly (for Aquafin, by Mr Ivo Van Vaerenbergh, President, and Mr Luc Bossyns, Managing Director; for SPGE, by Mr Jean-Luc Martin, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Mr Jean-François Breuer, Chairman of the Management Committee; and for the EIB, by Mr Philippe Maystadt, President, and Ms Isabel Martín Castellá, Vice-President).
At the signing ceremonies, Philippe Maystadt underlined the scale of the work already carried out by each of the two companies in their respective regions. He also stressed the magnitude and extent of the challenge, as it is these programmes that will enable the two regions to comply with the requirements of EU regulations on wastewater treatment. This is a major issue, which Aquafin and SPGE have, with the support of the EIB, addressed so that Belgium can make up for lost time in this field. Just as important for the people living there will be the beneficial effects of this work on water quality in the large towns of the two regions, the direct impact on the Sambre, the Scheldt and the Meuse and beyond, on the North Sea and the quality of bathing water on the Belgian and Dutch coasts.
Both Aquafin's and SPGE's capital expenditure programmes involve several hundred projects - the construction of main collectors, stormwater basins, pumping stations and wastewater treatment plants, as well as work on renovating wastewater treatment plants. These projects are located throughout Wallonia in the case of SPGE and throughout Flanders in the case of Aquafin.
Aquafin, which was set up in 1990 at the initiative of the Flemish Government, today manages 870 pumping stations, 205 wastewater treatment plants and 3 928 km of wastewater collectors. After 16 years in business, its overall investment portfolio (including projects planned and in progress) amounts to EUR 3.4 billion (and more than 2 550 projects).
SPGE, which was set up by regional decree in 1999, manages 186 wastewater treatment plants each serving a population equivalent of more than 2 000, 1 672 km of collectors and 561 wastewater pumping stations, as well as some 17 000 km of sewers. This investment by SPGE is part of a capital expenditure programme in Wallonia of nearly EUR 2.5 billion over the period 2000-2009.
For Aquafin and SPGE, the partnership established with the EIB, the EU's financial arm, has enabled their external funding to be diversified and, particularly in terms of the loan periods, optimised. With this second operation with SPGE in Wallonia and the six loans concluded with Aquafin since 1994 for Flanders, the EIB will have provided EUR 1.4 billion for this sector in Belgium.
For the EIB, these financing operations are in line with the objective of protecting and improving the environment. As an institution dedicated to implementing the policies of the European Union (EU), it allocates a third of its loans within the EU-25 to that objective. Over the past five years these loans have amounted to nearly EUR 50 billion, of which EUR 7.7 billion for supporting projects within the EU to improve water quality (catchment, treatment and distribution) and the management and processing of waste.