Eastern Partnership Technical Assistance Trust Fund launched

Today, the European Investment Bank (EIB) launched the Eastern Partnership Technical Assistance Trust Fund (EPTATF) at the first meeting of the Fund’s Contributors’ Committee.

The EPTATF is focused on increasing the quality and development impact of EIB Eastern Partnership operations by offering a multi-purpose, multi-sectoral funding facility for technical assistance. This will speed up and ensure more successful project implementation in Eastern Partnership Countries and will be complementary to the Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF).

EIB Vice-President Eva Srejber, responsible inter alia for EIB lending operations in the EU’s Eastern Neighbour countries, stated: “It is a priority of the EIB to help implement projects that are significant for both the European Union and the Eastern Partnership countries. The technical assistance initiative launched today will enable the Bank to better share its professional expertise in the areas of project preparation and financing with our partners for mutual benefit”.

The EPTATF will help to elaborate pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, institutional and legal appraisals, environmental and social impact assessments, project management and borrower support throughout the project implementation process, as well as financing upstream studies and horizontal institutional activities.

The EPTATF will be governed by a Contributors’ Committee that will meet at least once a year. Contributions could be provided by Member States of the European Union, the European Commission, beneficiary countries and interested third parties. The Fund will be administered by the EIB on behalf of the Contributors.

Background:

The mission of the EIB, the European Union’s bank, which is owned by the 27 EU Member States, is to contribute to the integration, balanced development and economic and social cohesion of the EU Member States by financing sound investment. In the Eastern Partner countries, the EIB supports the EU Neighbourhood Policy by financing projects of significant interest to the EU.

Under the current mandate, the EIB can lend up to EUR 3.7 billion to projects in Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus and Russia during the 2007–2013 period. In this context, the EIB is prepared to consider supporting sound projects in the areas of transport, energy, telecommunications and environmental infrastructure. In addition, in Eastern Partnership countries, the EIB can support SMEs through lending via banks.

To complement the mandate, EIB has set up the Eastern Partners Facility (EPF) at its own risk for an amount of EUR 1.5 billion, with a EUR 500 million ceiling for projects in Russia.  This facility enables the Bank to support investment grade projects, notably EU Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the region.