Vier JESSICA-leningen in Litouwen (en)

Energy savings programmes in Lithuanian cities will get a further boost from a loan agreement signed today between the European Investment Bank (EIB i), as manager of the JESSICA i holding fund in Lithuania, and the country’s largest commercial bank, SEB.

SEB will provide modernisation loans for energy efficiency investments in multi-apartment buildings for a total amount of EUR 6 million (over LTL 20 million). Apartment owners can apply for 20-year loans with low and fixed interest rates which must be used for energy efficiency investments. These investments potentially allow for a significant reduction in energy consumption and thus enable considerable savings on energy bills.

The Lithuanian government’s JESSICA holding fund, managed by the EIB, was established by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Environment of Lithuania in June of 2009 as an effective way of deploying EU Structural Funds for energy efficiency investments. The initial capital committed by the Lithuanian government to the JESSICA holding fund is EUR 227 million. This is one of the largest and one of the first JESSICA holding funds established. It is the first such fund to have disbursed money to intermediaries, and is the first one where money has reached renovation projects.

The loan agreement between the JESSICA holding fund and SEB was signed today in Vilnius by Eva Srejber, EIB Vice-President, and Aivaras Cicelis, Vice President of SEB Bank in Lithuania.

“The EIB is pleased to be signing this important agreement with SEB, which will give a further boost to the energy savings programme and bring benefits to apartment owners and the national economy of Lithuania”, Ms Srejber said.

The JESSICA fund loan agreement with SEB is the fourth such agreement in Lithuania. The previous ones were signed with Šiauliu bankas in May 2010 and November 2010 and with Swedbank in September 2010.

Background notes:

The mission of the EIB, the European Union’s bank, is to contribute to the integration, balanced development and economic and social cohesion of the EU Member States by financing sound investments. In the Baltic Sea Region, it supports a number of projects of the EU Baltic Sea Region Strategy and its four priorities: sustainable environment; regional prosperity; increased accessibility and attractiveness; safety and security.

SEB Bank Lithuania is the major commercial bank in Lithuania, offering a full range banking services to private individuals, corporate customers and financial institutions. It is part of the SEB Group, a leading Northern European financial group.

JESSICA (Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas) is one of the Cohesion Policy Joint Initiatives that were developed by the European Commission to contribute to making EU Cohesion Policy more efficient and sustainable. The JESSICA mechanism is based on cooperation between the Commission, the EIB and the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) and supports investments in sustainable urban development and regeneration.

This initiative, designed to increase the use of financial engineering instruments, allows Managing Authorities to use some of their European Structural Funds allocations to invest in revolving funds rather than providing one-off grant financing. By so doing, the Authorities can recycle financial resources in order to enhance and accelerate investment in urban areas. These investments, which may take the form of equity, loans and/or guarantees, are delivered to projects via Urban Development Funds and, if required, Holding Funds.