ITEM 1 : CONNECTING SOUTH EAST EUROPE TO THE EU

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH PHILIPPE MAYSTADT, PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK

Background note for commentary

The EIB is the European Union's long term financing institution. The EIB's mission is to provide credits for public and private investments who contribute to the realization of the objectives of the European Union. For example, the EIB lends money for big European infrastructure works such as highways, railways, ports, airports… The Bank is not only active in the European Union itself, but also in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe. It started operating in the Balkans in 1999, in the framework of the Stability Pact The EIB has a leading role in the Stability Pact for South East Europe, as it coordinates the regional reconstruction effort. In the Balkans, the EIB concentrates its credits in the transport and energy sectors, in order to connect the region with the EU. The EIB moves now more and more into credits in support to foreign direct investment in the region.

The EIB works in full complementarity with the European Commission's financial assistance in South East Europe. The Commission provides grants (donations), and the EIB provides loans (credits) on very favourable terms, which must be reimbursed in the long term.

The headquarters of the EIB are in Luxembourg. The President of the EIB is former Belgian Minister of Finance Philippe Maystadt. He was interviewed in the Brussels office of the EIB, on March 24 2003.

More info on the EIB in the Western Balkans :
http://www.eib.org/lending/balkan/en/index.htm

Shotlist item 1

00:00:00
Cutaways Brussels - exterior building of EIB

00:00:36
Cutaways Philippe Maystadt in the EIB office in Brussels

00:54:00
Interview
Philippe Maystadt, President of the EIB (speaking English)

On the role of the EIB

The EIB is the bank of the European Union. The bank was created by the Treaty of Rome in 1958, at the same time with the other EU institutions such as the European Commission, the Council, the Parliament, and so on. The Bank was created, in the words of the Treaty, to support the policy of the EU. The shareholders of the EIB are the member states of the EU and they are represented in the governing body of the Bank by a number of directors who represent all the member states They meet every month to decide to lend (money) for projects which should contribute to the realisation of the objectives of the EU.

00 :01 :50
On how the EIB works

The EIB is a lending institution. We use (financial) resources we collect all over the world by borrowing on the capital markets and we can borrow at very good conditions because we enjoy the so-called triple rating, the best possible dotation on the capital market. So, we borrow every day in Europe, in the US, in Asia and with this money we can lend and lend with long terms to finance projects which contribute to the realization of the objectives of the EU.

00 :02 :35
Stockshots
Big European infrastructure works in Europe
-Denmark-Sweden Oresund bridge
-Malpensa airport, Italy
-map with high speed train network
-TGV high speed train infrastructure works
-highways

00 :04 :23
Interview
Philippe Maystadt, President of the EIB

On the EIB's presence in the Balkans

We are involved in the Balkans since the end of the war, in the context of the Stability Pact. Until now in the Western Balkans we have invested about 1 billion euro. In 2002 the total amount of loans in these countries was 425 million euro. It is rather significant and our intention is to maintain this annual amount of lending of 400 million euros.

00 :05 :06
From Quick Start Package to Foreign investment

In the beginning, and it is normal, we were asked first to contribute to the reconstruction in the context of the Stability Pact. There was a division of labour and the EIB was asked to take the leadership for the infrastructure reconstruction projects in the Quick Start package. We have financed almost all urgent projects which were listed in this package. We will continue to finance basic infrastructure in the transport, energy and environment sectors. But at the same time we tend to finance also other sectors and I would mention two of them :

First : more foreign direct investments. To give you an example, we have just decided to lend money for a plant in Lukavac (BiH), built by an Austrian company. This is a good example of cooperation between a member of the EU and a Balkan country. We would like to repeat this to finance more foreign direct investments in the Balkans.

The second direction is the financing of projects in the health and education sectors because we think that this is very important for the future of these countries.

00 :06 :53
Stockshots
Works on Via Egnatia, a priority EU highway linking Greece to the rest of the continent, and to neighbouring countries such as Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey.

00 :07 :28
Interview
Philippe Maystadt, President of the EIB

On the Greek Presidency of the EU giving priority to the Balkans

When the Council of the EU, as it was the case quite recently in the Brussels Council, once the European Council gives a clear orientation that the Bank should do more in this sector in this country, of course it helps us to do our job because we know more clearly what our shareholders want. In the Brussels Council it was quite clear that they asked us to give special emphasis to what the Greek presidency calls ` connectivity `, to these kinds of projects which would ensure better links between the EU and the Balkans.

00 :08 :17
Connecting the Balkans to the EU : transport

Transport infrastructure remains one of our priorities in the Balkans. Of course, among these priorities, we will give highest priority to the porjects which will contribute to link one country to another. It is what we call connectivity to better connect Balkan countries between themselves, but also with the EU. We will give the highest priority to transport projects which would help to have a better link between the Balkans and the EU.

00 :08 :57
Main fields of activity

Until now in the Balkans, the bulk of our lending was in infrastructure, transport infrastructure, roads and railways. We think there are still huge needs for investment in these sectors. We will continue to lend for infrastructure. As I told you we have other fields of interest. In the next years the share of our lending for foreign direct investement on one hand and for healh and education on the other, this share will grow.

00 :09 :38
Financing schools and hospitals

We can finance for example equipment for hospitals and schools. Quite recently in another country we financed a programme for equipping the primary schools with informatica equipment, computers, so that the children can familiarize themselves with the use of this new communication technology. We could finance such programs in the Balkans.

00 :10 :20
Stockshots
Health sector : Hospital in Serbia
Education sector : Equipment of primary schools with computers, Belgium

00 :11 :57
Interview
Philippe Maystadt, President of the EIB

How to obtain loan from EIB ?

If you are a very small enterprise it would be difficult for you to deal directly with the EIB located in Luxembourg. That is the reason why we have put in place what we call ` global loans `. That means that we lend money to intermediaries : commercial banks. Why ? Because we can borrow on the capital markets all over the world in better conditions than any commercial bank. So, we get money at better terms and we can lend to these banks and bring them funding at better condtions. So these banks then lend to Small and Medium Enterprises. If you are an SME I would advise you to contact one of these banks to which we have lent money and ask for the special conditions resulting from the fact that they got financing from EIB. If you are a bigger company, than you can deal directly with the EIB and you can ask that we finance part of your investment in the country. This is the example I gave, the Austrian company who ask the EIB to finance part of its investement in BiH.

00 :13 :13
The EIB helps attract foreign investments

In order to attract foreign investment you must provide potential investors with good conditions. That means good basic infrastructure which is the reason why we insist so much on infrastructure for transport and energy, but also a potential investor would like to be sure that there will be stability, legal security. I think that this is a task of the governements to create the conditions which could attract direct foreign investment. The EIB can play its role in contributing, in creating these conditions, but it is mainly the task of the governement to create these conditions and to create confidence which is the key for attracting foreign direct investment.

00 :14 :21
Stockshots
Energy networks
Aerial view Zeebrugge methane terminal (Belgium)
Control rool Zeebrugge terminal
Electric central, Belgium
High tension lines, Belgium
Consumer comparing his meters and his bill

00 :15 :49
Interview
Philippe Maystadt, President of the EIB

Perspectives when Balkan countries will become candidate countries for EU accession

As soon as the country is recognized as a full candidate for EU membership we can use our pre-accession facility and we will be as active as we were in the ten candidate countries which will become our new member states and as we were before in Spain, Portugal or Greece at the time of their adhesion. The EIB is the bank of the EU created to support policy objectives of the EU and it is normal that the bulk of its operation is still within the EU. As soon as a country is recognized officially as a candidate, we will treat this country as if it was already a member of the EU. That is what we did with the candidate countries and we apply exactly the same procedures and criteria as they were already members of the EU.

00 :17 :11

ITEM 2 : INFOCLIP EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK

"FUNDING THE ENLARGEMENT OF THE EU"

Duration : 7'


END OF TRANSMISSION

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