The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending EUR 300 million for the construction of five motorway sections in Slovenia, with a total length of 50 km. The loan will help to complete the motorway network in Slovenia, which is an important transit country for passengers and goods.
The loan will co-finance the construction of the following five new motorway sections: Sentvid-Koseze (5.5 km), Vrba-Peracica (9.8 km), Ponikve-Hrastje (7.2 km), Pluska-Ponikve (7.6 km) and Slivnica-Drazenci (20 km). The first four sections are located in the Trans-European Transport Network's Corridors V and X (which are crucial routes connecting Slovenia with the neighbouring countries), while the last section provides access to this network.
The extended motorway network will help Slovenia to become better integrated into the European Union and provide important transport links with Croatia, an EU accession state. It will improve road safety and increase capacity, thus helping to cope with the increase in the flow of traffic that has been seen in recent years.
The state-owned company Druzba za avtoceste v Republiki Sloveniji d.d. (DARS) is the borrower, project promoter and final beneficiary of the loan. The EIB has a very strong record of cooperation with this company and has already provided DARS with nine loans amounting to EUR 943 million for the construction of Slovenia's motorways.
The task of the EIB, the European Union's financing institution, is to contribute towards the integration, balanced development and economic and social cohesion of the Member States. EIB lending in Slovenia, including the current loan, totals EUR 2.2 billion since the country became independent in 1991. More than 60% (or EUR 1.4 billion) of this amount consists of loans supporting transport projects, including investments that have contributed significantly to the expansion of Slovenia's motorway network.
The financing of projects contributing to the development and upgrading of the Trans-European Transport Corridors is one of the EIB's lending priorities. The individual corridors representing the trans-European transport network were defined at the pan-European Transport Conferences held in Crete in 1994 and Helsinki in 1997. This network has a crucial role in securing free movement of goods - it carries almost half of all freight and passenger traffic within the Union. Transport corridors in the new Member States were identified in cooperation with the European Commission according to the transport needs of the countries concerned.