- The first tranche of €100 million was signed at the EIB’s Rome office today.
- The InvestEU-backed operation will help finance work on water networks and wastewater treatment plants in the province of Turin.
- This is the sixth operation between the EIB and SMAT, with the overall total standing at €760 million.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved a €200 million loan to Società Metropolitana Acque Torino S.p.A (SMAT) to support its investment programme for the three-year period spanning 2025 to 2027. The first tranche of €100 million was signed in Rome today by EIB Director General of Operations Jean-Christophe Laloux and SMAT Chairman Paolo Romano. The agreement is supported by InvestEU, the European Union’s investment programme.
The EIB green loan[1] will help strengthen and modernise water and sewerage infrastructure in the province of Turin, contributing to substantial improvements in the quality and efficiency of the services available. In concrete terms, the project covers the extension and renewal of water supply networks, upgrades to reservoirs and installations applying cutting-edge technologies, and expansion and maintenance work on sewerage networks and wastewater treatment plants.
An innovative aspect of the investment programme concerns advanced remote control systems, which will make it possible to optimise infrastructure management and maintenance, increasing operational efficiency and improving the resilience of water services. This work will deliver long-term benefits for people and businesses, helping to cut water losses and improve the resilience of water services to future extreme weather events.
The agreement announced today is the sixth between EIB and SMAT, with the overall total standing at €760 million. This 20-year partnership shows a shared commitment to quality, sustainability and innovation in water resource management in the Turin area.
“At the EIB – one of the world’s largest financers of the water sector – we are increasingly convinced that investing in a safe, efficient and resilient water system means investing in public health and the sustainability of our environment,” said EIB Director General of Operations Jean-Christophe Laloux. “This operation consolidates our excellent partnership with SMAT to modernise and improve the efficiency of Turin’s water infrastructure.”
SMAT Group Chairman Paolo Romano added: “This operation once again shows how our company has been able to leverage its technical and economic results to build trust with European financial institutions, and how it confirms this trust on a daily basis. This acts as a guarantee of the quality of the service provided to users and a safeguard for the direct and related jobs via which SMAT supports its operational region in the Turin metropolitan area.”
Italy receives more EIB funding for the water sector than any other country
With over 1 770 projects and more than €86 billion in financing provided since 1958, the EIB is one of the world’s leading lenders to the water sector. In the last ten years, Italy has received more EIB funding for the water sector than anywhere else, seeing operations financed for more than €4.3 billion. The loan to SMAT comes in addition to financing announced in 2025 for BrianzAcque (€45 million); Acqua Novara.VCO (€150 million); Azienda Comprensoriale Acquedottistica S.p.A (€30 million); and ACEA (€340 million).
Background information
The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. Built around eight key priorities, we finance investments that contribute to EU policy objectives by bolstering climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, cohesion, agriculture and bioeconomy, social infrastructure, the capital markets union, and a stronger Europe in a more peaceful and prosperous world. The EIB Group, which also includes the European Investment Fund (EIF), signed nearly €89 billion in new financing for over 900 high-impact projects in 2024, boosting Europe’s competitiveness and security. The EIB Group signed 99 operations totalling €10.98 billion in Italy in 2024, unlocking almost €37 billion of investment in the real economy. All projects financed by the EIB Group are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, as pledged in our Climate Bank Roadmap. Almost 60% of the EIB Group’s annual financing supports projects directly contributing to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and a healthier environment. Fostering market integration and mobilising investment, the funds made available by the Group unlocked over €100 billion in new investment for Europe’s energy security in 2024 and mobilised a further €110 billion for startups and scale-ups. Around half of the EIB’s financing within the European Union is directed towards cohesion regions, where per capita income is lower than the EU average.
The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It also helps to crowd in private investment for the European Union’s strategic priorities such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. InvestEU brings all EU financial instruments previously available for supporting investments within the European Union together under one roof, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub, and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is deployed through implementing partners that will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.
SMAT is an integrated water service leader, providing drinking water supply, sewerage and wastewater treatment services for over 2.2 million residents in 293 municipalities of the Turin metropolitan area. It designs, builds and manages diversified water supply sources, technologically advanced drinking water plants, urban wastewater treatment and reuse plants, collection, treatment and reuse plants, and cogeneration and energy recovery plants.
[1] Green loan status is granted to EIB loans where 100% of the financing will support the Bank’s climate action and environmental sustainability goals, in line with the Green Loan Principles.
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