The European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union's financing institution, is lending EUR 50 million, in partnership with Dexia Crédit Local, for the upgrading of wastewater treatment systems in the Perpignan area of southern France (Department of Pyrénées-Orientales, Languedoc-Roussillon region).
The protocol of intent was signed on 22 September 2006 in Perpignan by Jean-Paul Alduy, President of the Metropolitan Community of Perpignan-Méditerranée, Philippe de Fontaine Vive, Vice-President of the EIB, and Christophe Jacquemain, Director of Marketing, representing the Dexia Crédit Local group.
The EIB/Dexia loan will finance the modernisation of wastewater treatment systems in Perpignan and the surrounding urban area. Specific projects include the expansion of wastewater treatment plants at Canet-en-Roussillon and Perpignan, the construction of a 16 km-long outfall over land (11 km) and sea (5 km), and work on the sewerage system to optimise the drainage of water, particularly during periods of heavy rain.
Supported by the 21 communes that make up the Metropolitan Community, Perpignan-Méditerranée has embarked on an active policy to restore the water quality of the river Têt and the coastal region, to upgrade infrastructure, and to bring wastewater treatment systems into line with EU standards.
Jean-Paul Alduy, President of the Metropolitan Community and Mayor-Senator of Perpignan, stressed the importance of this project for the 200 000 citizens of the area. While maintaining the level of activities in the region, the programme will tackle river pollution and improve the micro-biological quality of the seawater on the beaches. This in turn will help to improve the quality of life of local residents and enhance the tourist appeal of this attractive Mediterranean coastal region.
As this programme ties in with EU policies, it qualifies for EIB financing. At the signing ceremony in Perpignan, EIB Vice-President Philippe de Fontaine Vive underlined the importance of the environment as one of the EIB's priority objectives, not least because measures to achieve compliance with EU directives on water quality often place heavy financial burdens on local authorities. He welcomed this first operation with Perpignan-Méditerranée, adding that it was important for the EU's financing body to support local authorities' infrastructure investment that benefited residents of their communities, and that it was essential to maintain this partnership.
The EIB has previously provided loans to the Languedoc-Roussillon region - either directly or through other banks, in particular Dexia Crédit Local - totalling EUR 750 million. Most of this money has been used to finance large and small-scale projects for the development of road and rail networks.
For the EIB, these financing operations are in line with the objective of protecting and improving the environment. As an institution dedicated to furthering the policies of the 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 went towards supporting projects within the EU to improve water quality (catchment, treatment and distribution) and the management and processing of waste. In France, the EIB has lent some EUR 650 million over the past ten years to support projects in the urban areas of Belfort, Cergy-Pontoise, Chartres, Issy-Les-Moulineaux, Lille, Lyons, Melun, Nancy, Nantes, Perpignan and St Germain-en-Laye.