One billion three hundred million: the bulk (1.100 million) to the Eni group, the remaining 200 million to Edison. This is the amount of the maxi-financing granted by the European Investment Bank in support of a multi-year plan of 2,7 billion presented by the Italian energy group to strengthen the energy security of our country, in particular as regards the supply of gas . The plan includes 26 projects for the construction of new platforms off the Italian coast as well as for the maintenance and modernization of existing plants and wells. Some of these projects will be carried out by Eni with the participation of Edison. The contract relating to the first tranche of the loan (200 million) has just been signed by the two parties.
The plan is considered by Eni to be "highly strategic for Italy", taking into account that 70% of our gas supplies come from non-OECD countries. Countries which, in terms of supplies of energy products, present a higher "geo-political risk" than those belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. For this reason, the European Investment Bank believes that participation in the financing of the plan in question "is one of the traditional lines of intervention". One of which concerns precisely the security of energy supply sources.
The loans that the EIB recently granted (as reported by Firstonline on 24 October) to two companies of the Eni group refer to this line of intervention. One of 300 million addressed to Italgas for optimization of the distribution network. Another 65 million euro intended for Snam Rete Gas for the completion of the pipeline from Zimella (in the province of Verona) to Cervignano d'Adda (near Lodi) and for the replacement of four turbines in the Messina compression station.
These energy supply interventions must be seen in the broader context of the strategy of the EIB, which is the EU bank for long-term loans, in support of the balanced and sustainable growth of the European economy. A "mission" which, in times of crisis such as the one from which Europe has not yet emerged, becomes increasingly crucial. And that has led the EIB to further strengthen the specificity and extent of the instruments at its disposal to achieve the objectives that the European Union has assigned it.
These objectives were better specified last July by the Board of Directors of the EIB. Which, also on the basis of the results of a public consultation open to interested parties, had confirmed the choice made at the end of 2012 to assign priorities to interventions for energy networks, renewable sources and energy efficiency, as well as those for research and innovation. Without, however, loosening the commitment both to support economic growth more generally and to combat unemployment, especially among young people. And, "last but not least", he reiterated with the sound of euros (three billion more than expected, from 14 to 17, of loans in the year that is about to end) the support for small European businesses (which, if you help financially , are able to provide the greatest contribution to employment growth) and to the "mid-caps", ie those with between 250 and 3.000 employees.
“To respond to the crisis, the EIB – stated its president Werner Hoyer last month on the occasion of a hearing in the European Parliament – has made a real U-turn by activating an anti-cyclical policy in place of its consolidated propensity cyclical. A turning point made possible after the EU member states, which are the Bank's shareholders, increased its capital by a total of 10 billion”.
Thanks to this breakthrough, the European Investment Bank has now been able to announce that the total volume of loans that will be granted next year will amount to 70 billion, the same ceiling reached this year. At the same time, in its capacity as majority shareholder, it contributed to the capital increase of the European Investment Fund, and undertook to make another four billion available over the next seven years to strengthen the guarantees that the EIF itself attributed to the loans that banks grant to SMEs on the basis of EIB loans.
The EIF, chaired by EIB Vice President Dario Scannapieco, is a financial institution (but not a bank) which provides venture capital to European small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular newly established companies and high-tech businesses; and also offers guarantees to financial institutions, such as banks, to cover their loans to SMEs. "The European Investment Fund - says Werner Hoyer - is a powerful tool that can help small and medium-sized enterprises to obtain loans when, as in this period, access to credit is more difficult, especially for smaller companies".
