March 28 (SeeNews) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it secured approval by the European Commission of guarantees worth up to some 150 million euro ($162.2 million ) that will help support green cities projects across Central and Eastern Europe (CESEE) region.
The latest guarantees will unlock new financing for green and sustainable investments in the municipal, transport and energy sectors of 12 EU member states, among which Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Romania and Slovenia, to help address environmental issues, EBRD said in a press release on Monday.
The recipients will have access to financing of over 1.1 billion euro to speed up the green transition in urban areas under EBRD's Green Cities programme as well as to aid post-pandemic recovery, develop better infrastructure and level up competitiveness and socio-economic development with other EU member states. EBRD will also on-lend to financial institutions in target countries to back investments in transport, energy efficiency, renewable energy and residential building stocks.
Eligible projects are expected to include energy and resource efficiency in industries and commerce, the circular economy and recycling initiatives, green buildings, sustainable food products, renewable energy, energy storage and grids, water and wastewater, and low-carbon and urban transport.
The guarantees, approved by the investment committee of the Commission's InvestEU programme, follow and are part of an earlier agreement between EBRD and the Commission for 450 million euro in total.
As part of that agreement, EBRD and InvestEU last month also signed an agreement worth up to 60 million euro for the provision of advisory support for infrastructure, digitalisation and innovative investment projects in the same target countries.
($ = 0.9245 euro)