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Slovakia pioneers into EIB’s Economic Resilience Initiative

Last update: 09.03.2017 06:00

Helping to improve social and economic infrastructure, finding ways and funds aimed to bolster growth and boost job creation in the Western Balkans and the Southern Neighbourhood countries means addressing Europe’s migration headache at the very heart of the problem.
Slovakia decided to allocate EUR 2 million into the European Investment Bank’s (EIB) Economic Resilience Initiative trying to set an example and encourage bigger players to follow.

“When we want to address the problem of migration we must tackle it at its origin. This initiative is designed to do exactly that and I’m confident it will be successful. It’s like medicine, when you’re sick you have to find a cure, otherwise you’ll be stuck with symptoms forever,” Slovak Finance Minister Peter Kazimir said.

Achieving resilience in third countries requires all EU actors (humanitarian, development and political) to cooperate more effectively, which involves the development of shared assessments, strategies and implementation plans to build such resilience.

"I very much welcome the contribution announced today by Minister Kazimir for the new Economic Resilience Initiative on behalf of the Slovak government. Slovakia, one of the smallest of the EU Member States, is rising to the challenge. This positive response to the request by the European Council last year will allow the EU bank to help strengthen our neighbours’ economies and meet the migration and refugee challenge,” said Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank.

In the wake of escalating magnitude of the migration crisis, the EIB has launched the ERI targeting an increase in financing by EUR 6bn over a five-year period starting in late 2016 – over and above the EUR 7.5bn already envisaged – to catalyze up to EUR 15bn of additional investments.
EIB is now seeking EUR 730m of funding from the donor community, which will be blended with EIB financing. These resources will allow the EIB to support investments that generate positive social and economic returns but may otherwise not be funded, due to fiscal constraints, poor financial returns or high risk.

For more details
http://www.eib.org/infocentre/publications/all/eib-economic-resilience-initiative.htm