EIB Renews its Water Sector Lending Policy
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has renewed its policy on lending to water projects to adjust to the developments and challenges of this important sector. The renewed water lending policy will help the EIB to further strengthen its role as a major global financier of the sector, and as the "EU Water Bank."
The document has been presented at major conferences, among them at the recent Stockholm Water Week and at the International Water Association's World Water Congress held in Vienna.
The increasing importance of water issues are clearly reflected in the European Union's environment and development policies, with water being one of the most comprehensively regulated areas of EU environmental legislation.
The EIB's involvement adds significant value to water projects through project preparation, as well as advisory and technical assistance activities. The Bank's intervention will be predicated on maximizing value added, and priorities will be determined on this basis. The EIB disposes of key strengths that make it unique among financing institutions, in particular the transfer of sector and project experience from the EU to other parts of the world.
It is against this background that the Bank has developed a renewed water sector lending policy. It takes into account the EU policy drivers to define a set of principles and actions that respond to major challenges.
The complete text of the policy can be found at www.eib.org/publications.
In the last five years, the Bank lent EUR 10 billion directly to water and wastewater projects, of which 88 percent was in the EU-27.