The European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union's long-term financing institution, and the Republic of Azerbaijan concluded the Framework Agreement under which the Bank may start financing investment projects in Azerbaijan. The agreement was signed today in Brussels by H.E. Shahin Mustafayev, Minister of Economic Development and EIB Vice-President Wilhelm Molterer.
The EIB finances capital investment in countries which have co-operation agreements with the European Union. In the context of the mandate 2007-2013 which foresees €3.86 bn for the Eastern Partnership countries and Russia, Azerbaijan is the sixth of the countries in the Eastern Neighbourhood with which the Bank has signed a framework agreement. Previous agreements in the region have been concluded with Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and Russia.
The agreement, when ratified by the Parliament of the Republic of Azerbaijan, will enable the EIB to provide funding for significant investment projects in the areas of economic and social infrastructure, support to the local private sector, and climate change mitigation and adaption.
The EIB was set up in 1958 under the Treaty of Rome to provide loan finance for capital investment furthering European Union policy objectives, in particular regional development, Trans-European Networks of transport, telecommunications and energy, international competitiveness of industry and its regional integration and secure energy supplies. Outside the Union, the EIB contributes to European development co-operation policy in accordance with the terms and conditions laid down in the various agreements linking the Union to some 130 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean region, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, Asia and Latin America.
Photographer: EIB ©To be defined
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