EIB leent Aragón 200 miljoen euro (en)

PRESS RELEASE

BEI09/170

Luxembourg, 3 September 2009

Spain: EIB provides EUR 200 million for public investment in Aragón

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted the Aragón Region a EUR 200 million loan to support a series of investments over the four-year period 2009-2012. The finance contract was signed by EIB Vice-President Carlos da Silva Costa and the Economy, Finance and Employment Minister of the Government of Aragón, Alberto Larraz .

After the signing ceremony, the EIB Vice-President addressed those present, stressing “the importance of public investment in these difficult times, in as much as it helps to strengthen competitiveness in the long term and create jobs in the short term, softening the impact of the global economic crisis . The EIB is always ready to consider good projects like the one for which we are signing today’s loan, and we hope that this operation – the EIB’s first of this kind with the Government of Aragón – will be the harbinger of a long and fruitful relationship between the two institutions”.

The Aragón Government Minister emphasised the loan’s exceptional terms at a time of difficult access to the long-term capital markets.

This is a framework loan for financing small and medium-scale projects throughout the Aragón region aimed at stimulating economic growth, job creation and competitiveness by fostering human capital , culture, urban regeneration, sustainable mobility, research and innovation and the sustainable use of natural resources. The project comprises 91 schemes in the fields of health, education, social inclusion, culture and cultural heritage, administration, sustainable transport, information and communication technologies, research, development and innovation and the environment .

The investments promoted by the Region’s executive will complement the 2007-2013 Operational Programme for Aragón approved by the European Commission in 2007. The EIB will be cofinancing certain schemes with the EU structural funds, especially in the areas of knowledge management, sustainable urban development and the environment.

The EIB is the EU’s long-term financing institution promoting European objectives. Created in 1957, it operates in the 27 EU Member States and more than 130 countries worldwide. EIB financing operations are mounted in the framework of well defined EU policies.

Press contact:

Mercedes Sendín – tel. + 34 91 431 13 40 – email: SENDIN@eib.org

For further information about the EIB log on to the Bank’s website http://www.eib.org