- EIB Group President Nadia Calviño and Mayor of Barcelona Jaume Collboni have announced a €175 million loan to back urban regeneration and climate initiatives.
- Announced at the EIB Group Forum, the financing package will support sustainable mobility, green spaces, public infrastructure and climate-neutral city planning.
- A further objective of the agreement is gender-inclusive design, to give women better access to economic opportunities in Barcelona.
- Barcelona is the first city in Spain, and one of the first in Europe, to receive EIB support under the EU Mission Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a €175 million loan with the city of Barcelona to finance urban regeneration and climate strategies. The signing was announced today at the EIB Group Forum in Luxembourg. EIB Group President Nadia Calviño and Mayor of Barcelona Jaume Collboni presented the financing package, which will support urban development and climate strategy in the city, with a focus on sustainability and inclusion.
It will help finance key projects in Barcelona’s municipal investment plan (PIM) for 2024-2027, including to regenerate urban areas, create green spaces and implement flood protection measures, and to upgrade sustainable mobility infrastructure and public buildings like schools, market halls and sports facilities.
Announcing the financing agreement, EIB Group President Nadia Calviño stated, “This arrangement demonstrates the large-scale cooperation we have with cities across Europe, and reaffirms a collaborative relationship with Barcelona in which we have already signed multiple important contracts covering services from the supply of drinking water to social housing. This financing agreement will allow us to continue developing projects that make people’s lives better and businesses more competitive.”
Mayor of Barcelona Jaume Collboni underscored that Barcelona, with its high degree of financial solvency, “now has two major plans in operation: Pla Clima, which deals with the city’s resilience to climate change, and Pla Viure, created precisely to supply new, affordable social housing for the groups who need it most, especially young people. Thanks to agreements like the one signed today with the EIB, we can develop these programmes to transform our city, making it more resilient to climate change, for example by creating groundwater reservoirs, and building new social housing developments in the city of Barcelona.”
The investment programme will help implement the city’s urban development strategies, including Pla Clima, in order to create a more sustainable, resilient and inclusive Barcelona. That is how this initiative supports Barcelona’s inclusive vision for its transformation into a carbon-neutral city by 2030.
The project prioritises social integration and inclusion, placing particular focus on the needs of women and on improving their access to urban infrastructure and services. This approach is aligned with the EIB Group Gender Strategy and action plan, and demonstrates how inclusive urban design can foster economic opportunities.
Barcelona is committed to becoming climate-neutral by 2030 as part of the EU Mission Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities. With this loan, Barcelona is the first city in Spain, and one of the first in Europe, to receive EIB support under that programme. The project aligns with EU priorities, including the European Green Deal and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, and with the EIB’s role as the EU climate bank.
During the EIB Group Forum, titled Investing in a more sustainable and secure Europe, the Mayor of Barcelona also took part in a panel discussion on housing challenges and solutions.
The EIB has played a leading role in financing urban development across Europe, investing more than €150 billion over the past eight years to build better cities – from green transport, to energy efficiency, affordable housing, education and healthcare.
The EIB plans to team up with more cities to help them carry out climate resilience and other plans. These urban development projects show how the EU bank does much more than just finance infrastructure. Today, the EIB is focusing more resources on urban regeneration, encouraging businesses and people to stay in urban areas, reducing cities’ emissions, and improving people’s health and living standards by making it easier to walk, cycle and use trams and metros.
Pla Clima: for a low-carbon, resilient city by 2030
Barcelona has an ambitious plan with specific measures to make the city low-carbon and cut its greenhouse gas emissions, while also making it resilient to the effects of climate change. The Pla Clima plan sets out measures, timelines and investment volumes, which could total up to €1.8 billion by 2030. This initiative makes it possible to set priorities for the city and raise its climate objectives.
Pla Clima has become a roadmap for the city of Barcelona to adapt to the challenges of climate change and move towards climate neutrality – leaving no one behind and promoting social justice throughout the urban area, with the health of residents as a fundamental objective at the heart of the plan.
Background information
EIB
The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. Built around eight core priorities, we finance investments that contribute to EU policy objectives by bolstering climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, cohesion, agriculture and bioeconomy, social infrastructure, high-impact investments outside the European Union, and the capital markets union.
The EIB Group, which also includes the European Investment Fund (EIF), signed nearly €89 billion in new financing for over 900 high-impact projects in 2024, boosting Europe’s competitiveness and security.
All projects financed by the EIB Group are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, as pledged in our Climate Bank Roadmap. Almost 60% of the EIB Group’s annual financing supports projects directly contributing to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and a healthier environment.
Fostering market integration and mobilising investment, the Group supported a record of over €100 billion in new investment for Europe’s energy security in 2024 and mobilised €110 billion in growth capital for startups, scale-ups and European pioneers. Approximately half of the EIB's financing within the European Union is directed towards cohesion regions, where per capita income is lower than the EU average.
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