Cyprus Finance Minister and EIB sign agreement for EAC loan

Minister of Finance Charilaos Stavrakis and Vice President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Ploutarchos Sakellaris signed an agreement of guarantees on Thursday, providing for a loan of 30 million EUR from the EIB to the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC).

The agreement was signed on the sidelines of a meeting of Commonwealth Finance Ministers, which concludes today in the southern coastal town of Limassol.

Speaking after the signing of the agreement, Stavrakis said the EIB ''continuously funds important Cypriot companies of the public and the private sector,'' and referred to a pioneering loan for small and medium sized enterprises worth 228 million euro, as well as the signing of a loan of 60 million euro on Wednesday for the construction of an aeolian park by a private company.

Stavrakis explained that the new agreement is a continuation of previous loans to the EAC.

Sakellaris said ''the sector of energy is very important for us at the EIB and we support it and will continue to support it in Cyprus.''

He added that the new agreement was for ''a project for the production of energy in Dhekelia, on the south coast, using diesel,'' and that ''the project is 64 MW, with a total of 42 turbines''.