[Régionales] The European Investment Bank will allocate one billion euros to French territories in 2020. Through an agreement with the Banque des Territoires, European funds will finance a multitude of projects to improve local infrastructure such as the energy renovation of public buildings or even the installation of sewerage networks. Participatory democracy, financing… until regional elections, Novethic is looking into these initiatives which promote ecological and social transition in the region.
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A few weeks before the regional elections, the question of financing sustainable projects – thermal insulation of a high school, renovation of a water network, installation of electrical terminals, etc. – arises in all territories. In order to make life easier for the latter, one billion European euros will be able to be directed this year towards local authorities, via the Banque des Territoires, the armed wing of the Caisse des Dépôts (of which Novethic is a subsidiary) for financing. local. At the end of April, the European Investment Bank (EIB) renewed a financing agreement to this effect with the French institution.
The originality of the system lies in particular in the size of the loans that will be granted. This EIB envelope should indeed allow small local authorities to access long-term European loans in order to finance projects of less than 25 million euros. This envelope will also contribute to the objectives of the Banque des Territoires to become a climate bank, half of which should be directed towards projects contributing to the fight against global warming or to the mitigation of its effects.
This loan envelope has direct and concrete effects on the local economy, as communities can more easily finance the renovation of their infrastructure. This is the case of the municipality of Ifs, in Calvados, which has launched a project to renovate its nursery school and primary school. Of the 9.5 million euros for the project, 3.7 million are financed by a loan from the Banque des Territoires, set up with European funds. This project should make it possible to achieve energy savings of 65% on the nursery school and 30% on the primary school.
Ensuring the energy transition in the region
The same goes for Flers, in Orne, where the agglomeration has contracted a loan of 1.2 million euros from the Banque des Territoires to finance extension projects or the creation of sanitation networks. ‘water. Two municipalities in the agglomeration will thus be able to access European envelopes for loans over 25 years.
This type of small project is multiplying in the regions, they should gradually reduce the energy bill and the environmental footprint of these infrastructures. For Europe, the support of these local authorities is part of its roadmap aimed at achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
The European Investment Bank has already set up several initiatives to finance the ecological transition in the region, France being the second country to benefit from funds from the European public bank. The partnership with the Caisse des Dépôts had already been the subject of two loan envelopes in 2015 and 2019, which had made it possible to allocate 1.8 billion euros to communities. More recently, the EIB and the Banque des Territoires created a system to green the bus fleets in the regions. This investment platform endowed with 200 million euros, launched in January 2021, allows local authorities to access loans allowing them to acquire a fleet of electric buses.
Arnaud Dumas, @ADumas5
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