the EU bank

Since October 2002, the European Investment Bank's operations in the Mediterranean partner countries have been brought together under the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP).

FEMIP represents an important stage in a financial partnership between the EU and the neighbouring Mediterranean countries that goes back more than 30 years and was intensified in the 1990s to underpin the Barcelona Process.

In line with the European Neighbourhood policy, FEMIP aims to help the Mediterranean partner countries meet the challenges of economic and social modernisation and regional integration.

FEMIP finances private sector ventures, whether local initiatives or foreign direct investment (FDI).

In order to create an enabling environment for the development of private enterprise, FEMIP also supports:

• infrastructure projects
• investment in human capital
• schemes specifically targeting environmental protection.

To this end, FEMIP offers three main types of product:

• loans;
• private equity;
• technical assistance.

FEMIP is also helping to realise the objectives laid down in the context of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM).

Following the Summit for the Mediterranean held in Paris in July 2008, FEMIP undertook to contribute to three of the UfM’s six priority objectives:

• the cleaning up of pollution in the Mediterranean;
• the motorways of the sea and on land;
• and the Mediterranean Solar Plan.

The programme launched by the UfM is perfectly in line with FEMIP’s major objectives and involves areas that are eligible for FEMIP support.

FEMIP also endeavours to promote greater dialogue with all those involved in the Euro-Mediterranean financial partnership, both on the institutional front and with the representatives of the private sector and civil society.