EIB geeft 3miljoen euro aan Servië voor autosnelweg (en)

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Republic of Serbia have signed today a funding agreement for a EUR 3 million grant for the preparation of the Corridor X motorway project. The agreement was signed at the EIB headquarters in Luxembourg by Dario Scannapieco, Vice-President of the EIB responsible for operations in the Western Balkans, and the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister, Bozidar Djelic, on the occasion of the Fifth Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) Steering Committee meeting.

The technical assistance will be provided to support the construction of a 83.4 km motorway of the section of Corridor X between Nis and the border with Bulgaria at Dimitrovgrad; the construction of a motorway on 74.1 km on the Corridor between Leskovac and the FYROM border and the completion of Sections A and B of Belgrade Bypass.

The Corridor X is one of the pan-European corridors: it runs between Salzburg in Austria and Thessaloniki in Greece. The Corridor passes through Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, FYROM and Greece. The project will serve international, intercity and local traffic demand. It is considered as the core element of the transport network in the Western Balkans.

The grant will be funded from EIB and bilateral donors contributions to the Western Balkans Investment Framework and will be blended with loans and grants from EIB, EBRD, World Bank as well as the Greek Government.

The EIB Vice-President Scannapieco declared: “The grant agreement signed today supports one of the key projects in the Serbian transport policy, which is also an essential part of the country’s overall strategy. The fact that the WBIF supports it with a grant, confirms the strategic priority of the project, and also the capacity of the WBIF to provide concrete help to projects on the ground by blending grants and loans”.

The Deputy Prime Minister Djelic declared: “With its geographical position, the Republic of Serbia is on the track for some of the most important infrastructural projects. Serbian transport policy is oriented towards linking Western Europe with other parts of the world, such as the Middle East and the Far East. Therefore, investments in the Corridor X, both roads and railways, are in the common interest of the EU and Serbia, as well as other Western Balkan nations. The Grant Agreement we signed today is one of the important steps that will lead us towards more effective realization of common strategic priorities. Serbia supports the Western Balkan Investment Framework as a useful tool for infrastructure development and encourages its enhancement with the aim of a better blending of loans, grants and national funds”.

The WBIF was launched two years ago by the European Commission, the EIB, the EBERD, the Council of Europe Development Bank and several bilateral donors, a majority of which are EU Member States, to finance priority projects in the Western Balkans. The WBIF focuses on key socio-economic sectors including energy, environment, transport, social infrastructures and private sector development. Its objective is to pool and coordinate different sources of finance and leverage loans with grants for priority projects in the Countries of the Region. On the occasion of its fifth meeting the WBIF Stering Committee approved 22 new grants operations, benefiting from Eur 59 million grants from the WBIF donors. It is expected that the same projects will benefit from loans of EUR 1.1 billion from the partner IFIs and bilateral financiers participating in the initiative.

Background information:

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals.

The EIB in the Western Balkans

The EIB is the largest international financier in the Western Balkans where it has been active since 1977. Over the past ten years, it has provided finance totalling over 8.5 billion EUR for projects in transport, energy, health and education, support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and local authorities, industry and services, water and sanitation.

Press contact:

Marco Santarelli, m.santarelli@eib.org, +39 331 6595594

Website: www.eib.org/press - Press office: +352 4379 21000 - press@eib.org