The European Investment Bank (EIB) has just signed with Société de Crédit et de Développement de l’Océanie (Socredo) a subsidised credit line for the provision of EUR 5 million which will be onlent to projects in the environmental and renewable energy sectors.

Socredo will submit to the EIB allocation requests with a view to the partial financing of investment loans granted for environmental and renewable energy projects.

In order to be considered for EIB financing, potential projects must meet certain eligibility criteria, notably with respect to the benefits that the project is expected to have on the environment, its comparison with alternative investments, details of the standard regulations currently in force and compliance with Community legislation.

This is the Bank's sixth operation with Socredo, which up to now has allocated EUR 22.4 million of EIB funds to support the investment projects of local SMEs. The EIB and Socredo have had a fruitful partnership for over 25 years, but this is the first time that they have mounted together an operation aimed exclusively at the environment and renewable energy.

This project is fully consistent with the objectives of the Investment Facility which seeks, on the one hand, to develop and strengthen the financial sector and, on the other, to bolster the private sector with particular emphasis on SMEs and the environmental sector. This operation is also in line with the Bank’s renewable energy financing objectives and the Commission’s strategy for the Pacific Islands, which is based on a “blue-green” central theme focusing on the environment and renewable energy.

Background information

Created in 1958 under the Treaty of Rome, the European Investment Bank (EIB) finances capital projects that further the core objectives of the European Union (EU). It also participates in the implementation of the EU’s cooperation policy towards third countries which have cooperation or association agreements with the Union.

Since 1963, the EIB has also been an active partner in the development of many African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. Its operations in these countries form an integral part of the range of financial aid facilities made available to them by the EU under the Cotonou Partnership Agreement signed in 2000 between the EU and the ACP countries.   These contribute to sustainable economic and social development and to poverty reduction. In addition to the loans that it grants from its own resources, the Bank manages the Investment Facility (IF), a revolving fund financed by the EU Member States. The IF offers various financing instruments with risk sharing for capital projects implemented in most economic sectors. In 2006, the EIB's lending in the ACP countries totalled EUR 745 million.

In the framework of the Bank’s special financial assistance to the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT), the Overseas Association Decision of 27 November 2001 (which is analogous to the Cotonou Partnership Agreement) provides for the implementation of a EUR 20 million Investment Facility for promoting commercially viable projects, mainly in the private sector.

Like the Cotonou Investment Facility, the OCT Investment Facility is a revolving fund, aimed at supporting technically, environmentally, financially and economically sound projects in the private or commercial public sectors.