Chile and EIB sign framework agreement

Today in Luxembourg, European Investment Bank Vice-President Carlos da Silva Costa and Chile’s Ambassador to the European Union, Carlos Appelgren, signed a framework agreement establishing the bases for the EIB’s future activity in Chile. The signing of the agreement was a prerequisite to ratification by Chile’s Congress.

At the signing ceremony, Vice-President da Silva Costa underlined “the importance of this step, which will provide us with new tools for reinforcing relations between the European Union and Chile under the existing Association Agreement.” He also stressed that “the signing of this Framework Agreement will foster high-calibre sustainable growth through the financing of investment projects of mutual interest that strengthen the productive fabric or help to underpin climate change mitigation policies”.

The 2002 Association Agreement between Chile and the European Union provides for the EIB to engage in activity in the country in the framework of EU development cooperation policy. The signing of the agreement represents the first step towards the EIB being able to mount operations in Chile.

The EIB is the EU’s long-term financing institution promoting European objectives. Created in 1957, it operates in the 27 EU Member States and more than 130 countries in Asia and Latin America, central and eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Mediterranean region, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. It provides loans outside the European Union in the framework of the EU’s policy of cooperation with those countries.

The EIB finances projects in Latin America under its current mandate for lending in Asia and Latin America over the period 2007-2013 (ALA IV). This authorises it to lend up to EUR 3.8 billion to finance i) operations supporting the EU’s presence in those regions through direct investment and/or the transfer of technology and know-how, and ii) climate change mitigation projects.

The EIB can also finance climate change mitigation projects in Chile under the EUR 3 billion sustainable energy and security of supply facility for the period 2007-2013 approved by the Bank’s Board of Governors in 2007.

Since 1993 the EIB has operated under three successive Asia and Latin America mandates. The EUR 3.8 billion under the current mandate (ALA IV) breaks down into indicative amounts of EUR 2.8 billion for Latin America and EUR 1 billion for Asia.