5 euro million for clean-up of the Danube

Sat, 01/01/2005

In the fourth project under a joint facility with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the EBRD is lending €5 million to Slovenia’s Probanka, Maribor, for projects aimed at reducing water pollution flowing into the Slovenian portion of the Danube River Basin.

The EBRD/GEF environmental facility was set up last year. The Bank is committing up to €45 million to local banks for on-lending to local borrowers for environmental investment projects related to the Danube, while the GEF is providing $9.9 million in grant financing and for technical assistance. The aim is to promote environmental investments by private-sector companies and smaller municipalities. GEF provides financial incentives needed to overcome barriers to environmental investment.

The EBRD has already signed similar agreements with Volksbank Ljudska banka d.d., Bank Austria Creditanstalt d.d. Ljubljana and Nova Ljubljanska banka d.d. The project with Probanka is the fourth.

The GEF was set up in 1991 by the World Bank, UNDP and UNEP to provide grant and concession funding for measures to achieve global environmental benefits. Typical areas of GEF focus are biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, and persistent organic pollutants. The facility has allocated $4.5 billion in grants to support more than 1,200 projects in 140 developing nations.