The money was approved by the bank’s board during its first meeting of the year, which allocated €7.8bn to support investment in strategic infrastructure, innovation and more efficient use of natural resources. It also backed more than €3.1bn of new support for small business investment.
The infrastructure funding includes two new loans totalling €550m to finance expansion of Orly airport in Paris and to cater for the expected increase in passengers travelling through Amsterdam Schiphol. There is also support for the new Blankenburg motorway tunnel to improve road access to the port in Rotterdam, for upgrading congested international road links across Poland and for rural transport infrastructure in central Spain. The package also includes new investment to enable 70% of Italian households to access broadband wireless communications, financing.
New support for renewable energy including backing construction of a 650MW wind farm in Sweden as well as eight wind farms and two solar photovoltaic plants expected to generate 181MW of green energy in France. Upgrading wastewater treatment across Flanders and a new transmission link to a windfarm off the UK coast was also supported.
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