EIB provided 907 million Euro for new investments across Romania in 2021

Last year the European Investment Bank Group provided 907 million Euro for new investments across Romania, a release shows.

The EIB Group’s engagement in the country included financing for construction of two new regional hospitals, modernisation of the national electricity network to harness renewable energy and deployment of smart meters, improving energy efficiency and scaling up high-impact business investment.

“The European Investment Bank Group is working in close cooperation with Romanian partners to accelerate investment to improve key services, unlock economic opportunities and accelerate energy transition. Last year represented record EIB support for long-term health investment in Romania that will ensure better healthcare and treatment for patients in the years to come. The EIB and EIF also stepped up support for targeted business financing to ensure that Romanian entrepreneurs and companies can invest, strengthen economic resilience and tackle challenges triggered by the COVID pandemic.” said Christian Kettel Thomsen, Vice President of the European Investment Bank.

EIB support for healthcare investment in Romania in 2021 represented the largest financing for health investments in 31 years of operations in the country.

Details of the EIB Group’s activity in Romania and support for private and public investment by Romanian partners were confirmed following a three-day official visit to Bucharest by Christian Kettel Thomsen, European Investment Bank Vice President.

The visit included discussions on Ukraine and EIB support for priority investment in Romania with Ministers of Finance, Energy, Research, Innovation and Digital Transformation,  Transport, Health and Investment and European Projects, the governor of the National Bank of Romania, senior government officials and private sector partners.

In Bucharest Vice President Thomsen signed two new agreements. The first with Transelectrica will strengthen cooperation to enhance and accelerate energy network investment across Romania. The second will extended cooperation to provide project advisory support to implement transport, energy, water, environment, and health projects across the country.

Last year the EIB provided EUR 555 million for new investment to transform emergency healthcare in two of Romania’s largest, cities Cluj and Iasi. Including approval of financing for a regional hospital in Craiova,

In the last three years the EIB has approved a total of EUR 923 million financing for new hospital investment in 2021 and advisory support with project preparation – with JASPERS and EIB Advisory Hub involvement –  and project implementation – with the EIB’s project advisory support unit (PASSA). This represents the EIB’s largest ever support for healthcare in Romania.

The EIB is financing construction of two new regional emergency hospitals that will provide specialist healthcare for millions of people and hundreds of new in-patient beds.

The two new hospitals will both increase access to specialist patient treatment and improve medical education for future generations of doctors.

The first ever European Investment Bank financing for Electrica, totalling EUR 210 million signed last year, will support reinforcement and modernisation of the electricity distribution grid in the country. This includes upgrading and constructing new power lines, constructing and refurbishing of power substations and installing components for network automation across Romania.

The new EIB-backed investment will connect more than 180,000 customers, increase network capacity and improve reliability and quality of electricity supply. New investments will also support advanced-metering rollout and to enable long-term integration of renewable energy generation.

The EIB also provided EUR 41 million investment in Bucharest to reduce energy use by upgrading residential buildings in Sector 2 and Sector 6. The projects are part of the joint EIB-EU Smart Finance for Smart Buildings Initiative.