Middle East

 

9- European Investment Bank (EIB)

 

Founded in 1958, the EIB is the financing institution of the European Union (EU). Its shareholders are the twenty-seven Member States of the EU. The EIB's mission is to provide long-term financing to support viable investment projects that contribute to achieving the major objectives of the EU.
Its activities in the area of climate change are expanding rapidly. In particular, EIB is scaling up "global loans” to local banks to finance small or medium size projects energy efficiency or renewable energy projects.
In this connection, as part of a consortium led by Frankfurt School of Management and Finance, we conducted a study to assess the feasibility of combined EIB and AFD global loans to local banks in Lebanon, a country highly dependent on imported fossil fuels and where power supply is insufficient and inadequate (frequent load shedding). The global loans will support small scale investments by the private sector in the energy efficiency and renewable energy throughout Lebanon. The EIB loan (signed in December 2012) will be managed by the Lebanese Central Bank, Banque du Liban. In addition, the project is expected to benefit from a grant of up to EUR 4m for Technical Assistance for project implementation and capacity building from the Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF) managed by the European Commission (2011-2012).