A loan of EUR 20 million(
1) signed
today by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the
"Association of Communes for Ecology" of Zywiec
in Southern Poland, on Czech and Slovak border, will help
upgrade and extend sewage systems and a wastewater
treatment plant, to meet national and EU environmental
standards. The Association is one of the firsts
established in Poland between Municipalities that wished
to combine their efforts and face jointly their needs in
environmental investments.
Commenting on the loan, EIB Vice-President Wolfgang
Roth said 'The project will reduce pollution and health
hazards, and generally raise life quality for a
population of some 200 000 in Zywiec and in a number of
villages along the homonymous lake and along the Vistula
tributaries. It will facilitate the development of
tourism and widen the basis for the economic development
of the region
Since 1990, the EIB, the European Union's loan
financing arm, lent nearly EUR 2.9 billion in Poland,
more than in any other Central European country. About
EUR 1 billion went to Trans-European road and rail
Networks (TENs), including some EUR 500 million for
upgrading the major international East-west railway line,
as well as urban transport schemes.
In addition to transport schemes, the EIB mainly
financed fixed and mobile telecommunication networks,
environment-friendly infrastructure, the reconstruction
of infrastructure damaged during the 1997 floods in
Silesia. Support has also been provided for projects in
industry and the gas sector. Small and medium-scale
industrial, and energy and municipal investments are
being financed through global loans (credit lines) to
commercial banks established in Poland.
Since 1990, the EIB has lent some EUR 11 billion to
projects in twelve Central and Eastern European
countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech
Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria,
the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania.
Between 1997 and 1999, annual lending in the ten
candidates for EU accession averaged some EUR 2 billion.
In line with decisions by the EIB's Board of Governors
(the fifteen EU Finance Ministers), lending to projects
in the region may double to an annual EUR 4 billion
during the coming three year period.
For further information, please contact
the EIB's Information and Communications Department (Mr. Max Messner, tel.: +352 43 79
31 50, e-mail: m.messner@eib.org).
(1) 1 EUR = 1.95583 DEM; 0.621700
GBP; 4.15870 PLN.
