European Investment Bank gives EUR 300 mln for rural development in Romania

The European Investment Bank EIB will provide a EUR 300 million loan to finance priority projects under the Romanian Rural Development Programme for 2007-2013. The initiatives include afforestation, improvement of forest management and protection and small-scale rural and agricultural infrastructure investments. “The EIB loan will finance the upgrading of the environmental performance of more than 44,000 farms and improvement of the management of some 2,400 forestry holdings. It will also support erosion mitigation works on 60,000 ha as well as anti-flood measures in more than 1,000 communities, thereby reducing the risk of disasters such as the recent flooding in Southern Romania,” said Mihai Tanasescu, EIB Vice-President responsible for lending operations in Romania. The project will generate employment in Romania’s rural areas, increase the use of renewable energy resources such as biogas and biomass and reduce surface and groundwater pollution from animal husbandry, but will also support the upgrading of the forest road access network needed for the implementation of sustainable forest management plans. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com