Croatian PM Plenkovic receives EIB Vice-President

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic met on Wednesday with European Investment Bank (EIB) Vice-President Dario Scannapieco for talks on the bank's contribution to a new investment cycle in Croatia and its support to the Croatian government to implement key projects.

Prime Minister Plenkovic welcomed the cooperation with the EIB thus far, particularly with regard to achieving objectives to boost the economy, small and medium-sized enterprises, creating new jobs and new investments, particularly in infrastructure, energy and tourism.

This successful cooperation is obvious with a total portfolio in the amount of five billion euro.

Vice-President Scannapieco underscored that 2016 was a record year with regard to absorbing EU funds.

According to Scannapieco, EIB is gaining visibility in Croatia and is turning into one of the most significant international financial institutions doing business here. EIB wishes to continue participating in all development initiatives in Croatia and that is why it is providing counselling services in preparing projects and their financing so that these are as simple as possible for end users.

Scannapieco presented the EIB's Economic Resilience Initiative for countries affected by the migrant crisis. The six-billion-euro initiative refers to the period 2016 - 2020 with an expected impact of injecting an additional 15 billion euro in additional investments.

These investments will focus on vital infrastructure such as water supplies, energy, education, health services and urban infrastructure as well as strengthening financial support to small and medium-sized businesses and large companies in an effort to boost employment.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's nonprofit long-term lending institution established in 1958 under the Treaty of Rome with its headquarters in Luxembourg. Its main role is to secure funds for capital investments earmarked for the development of regions, infrastructure, improving competitiveness of European industry, environment protection, renewal energy sources and so on.

Since 1 July 2015, EIB has had an office in Zagreb.

Text: Hina

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