EIB loan for the revitalisation of Walbrzych, a former mining town in Poland

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is aiming to help a former mining town to turn the page of post-industrial decline and become an attractive place to live again, lending approximately EUR 14m (PLN 60m) to the City of Walbrzych for a wide-ranging investment programme to revitalise its urban infrastructure. This is the first tranche of a potential EIB commitment of up to EUR 28m (PLN 120m) for the city.

“Ensuring that no major city or region in Europe is left behind is one of the core objectives of the European Investment Bank”, said Vazil Hudák, the EIB Vice-President responsible for Poland and Cohesion countries. “For this reason, we support Walbrzych’s plans to revitalise deprived areas and renovate urban spaces and social infrastructure. Other former mining towns in Europe and Poland have found new life through regeneration programmes and Walbrzych could be the next place to achieve that”.

With its 115 000 inhabitants, Walbrzych is the second city of Lower Silesia in Southern Poland and ranks among the Polish cities that suffered most from the economic transition in the 1990s. The revitalisation program also includes energy efficiency measures, which account for around one-third of the funds used.

Vazil Hudák praised the Investment Plan for Europe, also known as the Juncker Plan, for facilitating the financing. “This is our first loan to the City of Walbrzych and was made possible by the guarantee of the European Fund for Strategic Investments, which is the financial pillar of the Investment Plan for Europe”, he said. As such, the loan to Walbrzych is the first loan extended by the EIB to a Polish municipality with ESFI support. The project also benefits from the technical advice of URBIS (Urban Investment Support), under the European Investment Advisory Hub (EIAH), which is the advisory pillar of the Investment Plan for Europe.

Original source: EIB
Published on 5 September 2018