Providers of the Facility
The EIB KIDS Fund Energy Efficiency Facility has been established by the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund (“KIDS F”) and the European Investment Bank (‘EIB”) in cooperation with the Bulgarian Government represented by the Ministry of Economy and Energy (www.mee.government.bg).
The European Investment Bank
The European Investment Bank is the financing institution of the European Union and supports the EU’s policy objectives by making long-term finance available to both the public and the private sector. The EIB is a non-profit institution financing economically viable projects. The Bank is owned by the Member States of the European Union and since it was established in 1958 has provided more than EUR 540 bn to support projects in the EU member countries as well as in partner countries.
After fifteen years of supporting Bulgaria’s convergence with the European Union, the EIB’s lending operations now cover all of the country’s key economic sectors, ranging from basic infrastructure to manufacturing and services, including support for small and medium-sized companies as well as municipalities through local financial institutions using the so called EIB global loans. Since 1990 EIB’s lending in Bulgaria has totaled around EUR 1.6 billion for financing investment projects. The main sectors in which the EIB has so far invested are Transport & Telecommunications (67%) and SMEs and municipalities (12%).
KIDS Fund
The KIDS Fund is a grant scheme financed by the European Commission, a number of EU member states and Switzerland. The purpose of the Fund is to finance or co-finance, through grants, the preparation and implementation of selected projects concerning the provision of technical assistance and the acquisition, installation and placing into operation of equipment necessary to support the decommissioning of older units of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and measures in the energy sector which are consequential to the decision of the Republic of Bulgaria to close and decommission Units 1 to 4 of the Kozloduy NPP at the earliest possible dates. This support would assist the necessary restructuring, upgrading and modernisation of the energy production, transmission and distribution sectors as well as improve energy efficiency in Bulgaria.