EIB backs €4.7 billion in infrastructure investment plans

The EIB also approved new financing for the first European industrial plant to recycle and re-melt aviation-grade scrap titanium metal and titanium alloys that will prevent the need to export titanium for recycling outside of Europe; support to expand modernised milk production activities in Normandy; and reinforcement of the transmission network serving the north of Scotland to connect future wind, wave and tidal generation sites to the onshore transmission network, the bank said in a statement.

More than half of the loans will improve access to finance for small businesses in Italy, Spain, Finland, Egypt and Lebanon, the EIB said.

Nine of the new projects will be supported by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), which was established last year by the EIB. The EFSI is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the EIB. Set up within the EIB, the EFSI will manage a guarantee from the EU budget of €16bn and an EIB contribution of €5bn to trigger private and public investment of €315bn.

Werner Hoyer, EIB president said: "Europe faces enormous challenges. EIB lending backed by the EU budget under the investment plan for Europe is now accelerating, enabling the EIB to support the projects that need it most, catalysing and accelerating private investment."

The EIB is "putting investment to work in the countries neighbouring Syria, a region whose growth and prosperity are an urgent priority for Europe. Without the prospect of a decent future, people in those countries will continue to see migration to Europe as their only hope. As the largest international public bank, the EIB has a central role to play in addressing the root causes of the refugee crisis, starting by targeting projects in the countries that currently shoulder the heaviest burden," Hoyer said.