EIB agrees €640m infrastructure loans to Ukraine
The European Investment Bank and the Government of Ukraine have signed three loans totalling €640 million.
A €340 million loan will support infrastructure rehabilitation and improve living and business conditions in conflict-affected regions of eastern Ukraine, including oblasts that host a significant number of internally displaced persons.
Several hundred small to medium-sized projects will be financed at the municipal level to restore social infrastructure, improve public utility services and repair damaged administrative buildings and other key social infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, kindergartens, post offices, street lighting, sewerage systems, municipal transport and relevant transport infrastructure.
EU grants worth €15.2 million will support the EIB loan with technical assistance in project preparation and management. In particular, a €7 million grant from the EU Neighbourhood Investment Platform will support the programme’s preparation and implementation.
In the second loan, worth €200 million to the Ministry of Infrastructure, up to 20 medium-sized and large cities in Ukraine will see improved public transport. The loan will boost the connection between the cities in the region of Azov Sea in eastern Ukraine with the rest of the country, increasing the standard of living for some 10 million people. The EIB loan comes with up to €4 million in grants for technical assistance in project implementation from the EU’s Neighbourhood Investment Platform.
In the third loan, the EIB is investing €100 million to modernise 183km of roads in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk Region. Citizens and businesses in the region will benefit from a modern road network along the Troitske-Severodonetsk-Starobilsk route. The project will also improve connections with eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast.
