The European Union (EU) provided a EUR 5 million grant to support water and sanitation projects in seven municipalities of the Federation Bosnia and Herzegovina. This grant from the Municipal Window of the Infrastructure Project Facility (IPF) will be blended with a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) in the context of the Western Balkan Investment Framework (WBIF). The WBIF is an initiative by the European Commission, the EIB and International Financial Institutions to accelerate projects in the Western Balkans.
To implement this grant, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina signed a EUR 5 million grant agreement on 22 September 2010 in Sarajevo.
The EUR 5 million grant from the EU will be dedicated to the construction and upgrading of water and wastewater infrastructure in the seven municipalities across Bosnia and Herzegovina. This investment is part of the Water and Sanitation FBiH Project, which already benefits from an EIB loan aiming at improving water and sanitation in some 15 municipalities of the Federation BiH.
The project is fully in line with the EIB's lending priorities for the improvement of environment and the strengthening of infrastructure and activities in support of the countries candidate and potential candidate to the European Union.
Note to editors:
The European Investment Bank, the long-term financing institution of the European Union, supports viable capital investment projects furthering the policy objectives of the Union. In the countries of the Western Balkans, the financing operations of the EIB contribute to facilitating the integration process with the European Union. Since 2001, the EIB has extended more than EUR 1 billion in favour of projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina.