On December 17th, the European Parliament and the EU Council, under Lithuanian Presidency, reached an agreement on European guarantees of the European Investments Bank, EIB.

This agreement covers financing operations outside the EU, by the EIB, for the 2014-2020 period. The EIB is the European Union bank working together with other EU institutions in order to implement European policy and its objectives. Apart from its activity centered in Europe, the EIB is also in charge of the financial strand of the EU external and development policies.

The multi-annual budget defined clear objectives. An effort should be done to align EIB financing to EU policies. Thus, the development of local private sector, with a particular support for SMEs, as well as the development of economic, environmental and social infrastructures will be strengthened. Moreover, a greater emphasis will be on climate issues (adaptation, mitigation of change,…)

The EIB intervenes in these fields thanks to different instruments. Financing the ACP countries is available as well as Financing the south-east neigbhour countries and Financing in Asia and Latin America. The Facility for Euro-Mediterranean investment and partnership and its technical assistance funds also are opportunities to fund projects outside the EU. Other instruments provide access to European funds for projects. There are the Individual Loans, Intermediated Loans or the Structured finance facility.

Finally, the ceiling is fixed to 30 billion euro for the EIB financing of operation under EU guarantees from 2014 to 2020. This ceiling can be divided into two parts: first, a fixed amount of 27 billion euro and second, 3 billion euro which are optional and additional.