EIB to lend Greece over 1 bln euros this year
The European Investment Bank is expected to disburse loans of over 1 billion euros to Greece this year, confirming, according to EIB Vice President Mihai Tanasescu, that “Greece constitutes a reliable client for the European Union.”
At the signing of the agreement for a 235-million-euro loan to Greece’s Public Power Corporation, Tanasescu presented the European Investment Bank’s activity in this country, stating on Monday that “the EIB has no limits to its investment in Greece,” adding with emphasis that “what we need is reliable business plans.”
The PPC business plan being funded covers the period from 2013 to 2015 and aims to overhaul and bolster its electrical energy distribution network as well as expand it in order to make possible some 186,000 new connections on mainland Greece and the islands.
PPC President Arthouros Zervos explained that the EIB loan forms part of total borrowing of 415 million euros, with the remaining 180 million euros coming from another loan expected to be signed this year or in 2015 at the latest. Greece’s EIB credit last year amounted to a total of 1.4 billion euros, almost three times as much as the 550 million euros disbursed in 2012.
