GREECE: EIB in €80m for energy, technical assistance

The European Investment Bank (EIB) will provide EUR 80 mln to finance electricity production on 18 Greek islands in the North and East Aegean, Dodecanese, Cyclades, and the Diapontia island complex.

EIB President Werner Hoyer and Arthouros Zervos, CEO of Public Power Corporation S.A. (PPC/DEH) signed the finance agreement in Athens in the presence of Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, Yiannis Maniatis. EIB Vice President, Wilhelm Molterer, who also attended the ceremony, presented plans for enhanced technical assistance in Greece, through strengthening and extension of the JASPERS (Joint Assistance to Support Projects in European Regions) initiative.
“We are continuing our strong support in key sectors for growth and jobs in Greece through lending, blending and advising. We support investment to improve the people’s living and economic conditions with the upgrading of the electricity production on several non-interconnected Greek islands. This is a further step to ensuring security of electricity supply of the islands, following the EUR 65 mln agreement we signed in September to support the connection of the main Cycladic islands with the mainland interconnected system of Greece,” said EIB’s Hoyer.
JASPERS is a joint initiative of the European Investment Bank, the European Commission and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) created in 2005 to provide technical assistance to the authorities managing EU structural funds in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Greece, FYROM, Montenegro and Serbia are also eligible to JASPERS’ assistance.
Since January 2013, three major projects totaling EUR 425 mln have been approved, including a new ticketing system for the Athens Metro already in operation.