Higher education, water distribution, energy efficiency and private sector investment across Romania will benefit from more than EUR 809 million of new financing from the European Investment Bank and European Investment Fund agreed with Romanian public and private partners last year.

The European Investment Bank Group’s engagement also included targeted financing to ensure that Romanian companies can continue to invest and better face business challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year the EIB continued its track record of supporting energy efficiency in Romania and agreed EUR 42 million of new financing toward the Energy Efficiency Investment Programmes of three districts in Bucharest.

In their entirety, the programmes aim to reduce energy use and cut heating bills for 900 residential buildings and 19 schools, and EIB’s fresh funding supports the implementation progress. This new support will assist implementation of Romania’s National Energy Efficiency Action Plan and the EU Resource Efficiency Initiative.

“Ensuring that companies continue to invest and priority projects can proceed is crucial to reduce the impact of COVID-19 and build a better future. The excellent collaboration between Romanian public and private partners and colleagues from the European Investment Bank Group, including our technical and financial experts in Bucharest, have once again delivered transformational support for economic, social and climate investment in Romania. The EUR 809 million new EIB and EIF financing agreed in 2020 will benefit thousands of companies, students and households across the country in the years ahead,” said Christian Kettel Thomsen, EIB Vice President responsible for Romania.

“In 2020 the EIF provided more than EUR 387 million of new financing for small businesses across Romania. This included new guarantee and equity transactions, support for ten local microfinance schemes and backing for a first-of-its-kind synthetic securitisation transaction in Romania, to scale up leasing finance. The EIF teams in Bucharest and Luxembourg remain committed to working with our Romanian partners to continue mobilising high-impact private investment in Romania,” said Alain Godard, Chief Executive of the European Investment Fund.

Since 1991 the EIB and EIF have provided more than EUR 17 billion for transformational private and public investment across Romania.