EIB planning EUR 3.5 billion for Western Balkans infrastructure – Focus on roads and railways

The European Investment Bank plans to provide an additional EUR 3.5 billion to the Western Balkans in the next three year for infrastructural projects. The majority of it will be meant for Serbia, as announced by Dubravka Negre, Head of EIB Regional Representation for the Western Balkans, at the Trieste summit.

– We plan to increase our activities in the Balkans and Serbia through the so-called Economic Resilience Initiative. The plan is to invest an additional EUR 3.5 billion in the next three years, of which we expect about 50% to be put into projects in Serbia – Negre said for Tanjug.

She explained that the money would be primarily intended for projects in road and railway infrastructure.

As she said, the EIB plans to provide, within this initiative, an additional 6.5 to 7 billion euros for North Africa, to address the problem of migrations, but also for transit countries such as Serbia and other Balkan countries.

She reminded that the EIB was very active in Serbia and that it was the biggest source of finance for Corridor 10, with nearly EUR 600 million invested.

– We are already financing hospitals in Serbia – the Clinical Center of Nis, and we will continue financing the clinical centers in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Kragujevac. We are financing the science infrastructure, we have completed the science park in Zvezdara, Belgrade, and we will soon complete the science park in Novi Sad as well, the construction of which is still in progress. We will also invest in the science park in Nis, and these are some of the topics we discussed with the prime minister and the delegation of Serbia – Negre said.

She reminds that the EIB has been present in Serbia since 2001 and that it is one of the biggest investors, with over EUR 4.5 billion invested in Serbia.

According to her, those funds are being implemented quite well and as much as 80% of the money has already been paid out, which is a good degree of utilization.

– In the future, we will focus on the agenda of connecting the countries of the region – Serbia to the EU countries surrounding it, but also to other countries of the region, which are not yet members. Our goal is to aid the integration of Serbia and the countries of the region into the EU. Serbia is the country we invest in the most, it is the biggest country in the region and a very important partner to us – Negre pointed out.

Evropska investiciona banka EIB

EIB

Dubravka Negre

Economic Resilience Initiative

Corridor 10

infrastructure

science park