22 Jun 2016, 11:48 am
The projects will be backed by the EU budget guarantee under the European Fund for strategic Investments (EFSI).
The EFSI was established last year by the EIB as a joint initiative of the European Commission and the EIB. It will manage a guarantee from the EU budget of €16bn and an EIB contribution of €5bn to trigger private and public investment of €315bn.
The projects include research and development of new wind turbines in Germany, investment in research intensive early stage life science companies in Ireland and the UK, equity financing of small infrastructure projects in France and energy transmission in Italy, the EIB said.
The EFSI will also provide finance for safety improvements at Vilnius airport, three biomass power plants in the Lithuanian capital and in Portugal, and roll-out of 4G mobile internet in Sweden and the Netherlands.
€1bn of the funding will be spent on a new initiative intended to reduce harmful emissions in the European shipping industry through investment in energy efficient technologies and financing for retrofitting existing vessels and financing new environmentally friendly ships, the EIB said.