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Cyprus joins forces with the EIB for sustainable city development
Published: 2009-08-10 18:58:53
The European Investment Bank and the Planning Bureau of the Republic of Cyprus have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen cooperation in financing integrated sustainable urban development in Cyprus. (Story sourced from here)
Arrangements for the signature of the Memorandum have been made by Mr Plutarchos Sakellaris, EIB Vice-President and Mr Andreas Moleskis, Permanent Secretary of the Planning Bureau of the Republic of Cyprus.
The Memorandum represents an intention to use the Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas (JESSICA) initiative in Cyprus through the establishment of a JESSICA Holding Fund.
EIB Vice-President in charge of operations in Cyprus, Plutarchos Sakellaris said: “I am happy to see Cyprus joining forces with us to deploy EU Structural Funds in support of integrated and sustainable urban development projects. More and more EU Member States and Regions have decided to benefit from the innovative financial engineering mechanisms to support investments in priority urban projects. This is of particular importance in the current crisis”.
Since the end of April 2009, the EIB has established with respective national and regional authorities JESSICA Holding Funds, namely with the Wielkopolska Region (Poland), the Andalucía Region (Spain), the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Portugal and the Westpomeranian Region (Poland). JESSICA Holding Funds, managed by the EIB, will invest structural fund allocations in urban development funds supporting urban projects in the form of equity, loans and/or guarantees.
In addition, the EIB has signed Memoranda of Understanding relating to the creation of JESSICA Holding Funds with Member States and Regions in the following EU Member States: Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.
At the request of the Managing Authorities the EIB has carried out country or region-specific evaluation studies in the following 16 Member States or their regions: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the UK. These studies analyse the market gap for financial engineering instruments in support of sustainable urban development in the respective EU regions supported by EU grants in 2007-2013.