This first direct EIB loan to local authorities in Greece will support a number of small and medium sized investments in Kozani, designed in response to demographic pressures and the need to diversify the city’s economic base in order to promote economic development and regeneration, as well as to improve the quality of life.
The greater Kozani area, including Ptolemaida and Aminteo is the most heavily industrialized region in Greece after Attiki and Thessaloniki. Developing into a nodal town of South East Europe, with activities of a wider regional nature, the town has been experiencing high population growth rates, which resulted in high urban density and hence compromised the structure of the old part of the city. For improving quality of life and securing future prosperity, the Municipality is going ahead with the expansion of the town with a “Zone of Alternative Urban Planning (ZEP) embracing a site of some 51 hectares, south-west of Kozani and close to the Egnatia motorway. The ZEP is being implemented by the municipal company DEPEPOK S.A.. As an “intelligent” settlement it will exploit the full panoply of contemporary urban planning concepts, including the latest telecommunications infrastructure, with the aim of providing comprehensive access to a broadband fibre optics network to facilitate high-speed information access and transfer.
Mr Gerlando Genuardi, EIB vice-president : “EIB is making its first loan to a local authority in Greece with a pioneering project: Kozani’s ZEP is pivotal, on the one hand facilitating the urban renewal of high density localities, and on the other exploiting the city’s comparative advantage to develop an “intelligent” neighbourhood that undoubtedly augurs well for the planned economic renewal. This will facilitate the establishment of Kozani into a nodal town of South East Europe. We are looking forward to see a number of follow up operations with local authorities throughout the country as this is one of the Bank’s important priorities in Greece. The protection and enhancement of the urban environment has become a key objective for European action”.
EIB’s loan will not only support investments in public infrastructure in ZEP, a prerequisite for encouraging private sector developments, but will also be available to support infrastructure schemes to be implemented by DEYAK S.A. (responsible for the town water supply, waste treatment and district heating network) and urban development schemes implemented directly by the Municipality.
The EIB loan will allow the Municipality to fund its investments at a cost that is lower than its traditional funding sources whilst the long term nature of the loan will enable it to spread the budgetary impact over a longer period. In Greece, local authorities are expected to assume an increased role in carrying out local infrastructure investments, favouring an increased prioritisation in investments. EIB participation in the financing of the investment programmes of local authorities in Greece can play therefore an important role in the future.