The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending EUR 5 million to improve public transport in Moldova’s capital Chisinau. The EIB funds will be used to purchase of around 100 new low-floor electric trolleybuses, spare parts and maintenance equipment.

This is the EIB’s first loan to the City of Chisinau, the capital of the Republic of Moldova. The project aims to improve the quality of the trolleybus service in terms of reliability, comfort and speed. These improvements, together with expanded capacity alleviating passenger congestion, will encourage the use of public transport. The new trolleybuses will reduce energy consumption and noise. The expected switch to public transport will further improve air quality.

This project is being co-financed with a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and grants from the European Commission under the Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF).

The EIB started financing projects in Moldova in 2007, after getting the EU’s political
go-ahead at the end of October 2006. Including the current loan, the Bank’s commitments in Moldova total EUR 65 million so far, following the three previous EIB loans in this country for the rehabilitation of roads linking Chisinau with the Romanian border (EUR 30 million), the rehabilitation and capacity increase of Chisinau airport (EUR 20 million) and the rehabilitation and extension of water supply and sanitation systems (EUR 10 million).

Under the current mandate, the EIB can lend up to EUR 3.7 billion to projects in Russia, Eastern European and the Southern Caucasus countries within the period 2007 - 2013. In this context, the EIB is prepared to consider supporting sound projects in the areas of transport, energy, telecommunications and environmental infrastructure, as well as lending via banks to SMEs.

To complement the mandate, the EIB has set up the Eastern Partners Facility (EPF) at its own risk for an amount of EUR 1.5 billion, with a EUR 500 million ceiling for projects in Russia. This facility enables the Bank to support investment grade projects, especially EU foreign direct investments (FDI) in the region.