EUR 194 million in EU and bilateral grants was approved for new digital, environmental, transport and energy projects across the Western Balkans, during the 21st steering committee meeting of WBIF.
These projects will be supported by loans from the EBRD and other international financial institutions (IFIs). The grants approved for EBRD projects are expected to leverage more than EUR 400 million in investments.
Under the approved grants, funding will be provided for the rehabilitation of Kosovo’s railways. In December 2018, an agreement was signed between the representatives of Kosovo, EU and EBRD for the provision of a EUR 17.2 million grant for country’s rail modernisation. In addition, in the last years, EUR more than 120 million were provided by the EBRD, EIB and EU, through the WBIF for the project.
It envisages the modernisation of 148 km of Kosovo’s rail Route 10 on Orient/East-Med Corridor. This year, Infrakos, the rail infrastructure manager announced that Generale Costruzioni Ferroviarie (GCF) won a EUR 210 million contract to carry out construction and rehabilitation works.
The grants approved at the WBIF steering committee in December 2019, will also provide funding for construction and modernisation works for road infrastructure in Bosnia and North Macedonia.
The EBRD and the EU also signed two contribution agreements totalling EUR 45 million to support the Advice for Small Business programme in the Western Balkans and the Regional Energy Efficiency Programme.
In the last the years, through the WBIF, the European Union provided EUR 1 billion grants, which have leveraged more than EUR 5.5 billion in signed loans from IFIs.
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