450 million euro from Invest EU for sustainable infrastructure, green economy and digitalisation
The European Commission and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have signed an InvestEU guarantee agreement worth up to 450 million euros across 12 EU Member States.
What is Invest EU?
The InvestEU Programme supports sustainable investment, innovation and job creation in Europe. It aims to trigger more than 372 billion euros in investments over the 2021-2027 period. It will bring together the European Fund for Strategic Investments and 13 other EU financial instruments under one roof. The implementation is possible to the partnership with financial entities such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investments Bank (EIB)
The role of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
EBRD, which operates as a multilateral bank in 36 countries to develop the private sector and entrepreneurship, is the Invest EU official implementing partner and will finance up to 2.1 billion euros for sectors such as sustainable infrastructure, green economy and digitalisation, as well as innovation and research in the European Union.
Sectors and countries
The specific sectors that will be positively impacted by the Invest EU investments are:
- transport and mobility;
- energy;
- infrastructure;
- digital connectivity;
- circular economy;
- low carbon technologies;
- bioeconomy;
- food;
- tourism;
- research and digitalisation;
- critical raw materials value chain solutions;
- life science;
- smart cities;
- sustainable blue economy;
- social housing.
Investments will be made available in the following EU Member States: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
What are the InvestEU eligibility criteria?
In order to benefit from InvestEU financing, potential projects must:
- address market failures or investment gaps and be economically viable;
- need EU backing in order to get off the ground;
- achieve a multiplier effect and where possible crowd-in private investment;
- meet the EU policy objectives.
The policy areas eligible for financing and investment operations are presented in annexe II to the InvestEU Regulation; while the eligibility criteria are further defined in the investment Guidelines.