EIB extends Romania 110 million euros worth of loans for environmental protection in 2006

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has extended Romania loans worth one billion euros this year, out of which 110 million euros target the environmental protection, mostly water management and urban infrastructure, the EIB head of the lending operations division for Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus told Rompres on Thursday.
„The value of the EIB lending will reach one billion euros this year, of which 110 million euros will target the environment sector, the water management and to this amount other loans will add, mostly aimed at removing the effects of floods”, Cormac Murphy told a conference on the funding of the Romanian water sector staged by the EIB in Bucharest.
Some of the main problems raised by the bank’s officials related to the Romanian water sector include the poor preparation of certain projects, delays in the conduct of public acquisitions, the lack of local funds in some situations and the need for powerful regulations and institutions. Romania badly needs environmental funds, since it must invest about 19 billion euros in order to reach the European Union environmental standards.
„The funds required to meet all the EU environmental standards amount to 19 billion euros by 2018, when the last transition period for this sector expires”, Environment and Water Management Minister Sulfina Barbu said.
She announced that her ministry is conducting 40 projects for upgrading the water infrastructure, worth a total 3.5 billion euros.
„In order to attract all the European funds for this sector, the EIB lending included, we must prepare a quality portfolio of the projects that should be implemented as quickly as possible, since the transition periods are pretty short”, Barbu added.
The environmental protection sector attracted during 1990-2005 as much as 17 percent of the total EIB loans to Romania, namely 733 million euros of the total 4.3 billion euros.
From 2006, the EIB has started extending 13.2 billion euros worth of loans for projects in the water and sewerage sector to 20 of the 25 EU states. ROMPRES