EU enhances its support to transport connectivity, energy efficiency and education in Ukraine through new EIB agreements

At the EU-Ukraine Association Council meeting held in Brussels, the European Investment Bank (EIB) agreed with the Ukrainian Government on a series of new financing operations.

The EU bank will lend EUR 50m to finance transport infrastructure improvements throughout the country. Ukraine and the EIB also signed a EUR 10m grant agreement under the multi-donor E5P fund that supports municipal investments in energy-efficiency and environmental projects in the Eastern Partnership countries.

The grant will help finance the implementation of a Ukraine Higher Education Project, which the EIB is already supporting. Furthermore, the EIB concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science for the preparation of a project to create several centres of excellence in the country.

EIB Vice-President Vazil Hudák commented: “Together with other EU institutions, the EIB is committed to improve the everyday life of Ukraine’s citizens. The projects signed today will result in faster and safer transport infrastructure, better academic facilities and more resources for higher education programmes, all of which will strengthen the country’s competitiveness”.

The EUR 10m E5P grant will be instrumental in implementing the Ukraine Higher Education Project that has already received a EUR 120m loan from the EIB and EUR 30m from Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO). The grant will be used to finance, in particular, seven universities in the cities of Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Lviv, Poltava, Sumy and Vinnitsa in order to significantly reduce the energy consumption of their buildings with positive environmental impacts. The project is also supported by a EUR 3m EU grant from the Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF) to assist implementation arrangements.

Original source: EIB
Published on 17 December 2018