The European Bank of Investments, the financial branch of the European
Union, declared that they will cut the new finances in Western Balkan,
including Albania.
In a press conference in Belgrade, the vice President of the Bank, Dario
Skanapieko, declared that the new loans in Wester Balkan could decrease
with 20%, for giving time to the countries to absorb the previous funds
that are still unused.
The second person in charge of BEI declared that through this strategy,
the bank aims to clean all unabsorbed funds for the projects in Albania,
Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia. For the period 2007-2011, the European
Bank of investments has signed 4.2 billion EUR of loans for the projects
in the country.
Due to the administrative delays, only 2.43 billion of them have been
absorbed, leaving 1.8 billion EUR of signed and unused funds.
“We want to see a good consistence between the loans that we sign with
the Western Balkan countries and their usage, what would make the help
more efficient”, declared the vice President of BEI.
The European Bank of Investments finances mainly development projects,
from infrastructure to the direct support for business. Last year it
disbursed 859 million EUR of finances in the region, 67% of which were
taken by Serbia.
Albania is among the countries that benefit less by the EU grants, for a
series of reasons related with the slow integration process and the low
absorbing capacities. The Albanian government itself has preferred to
ask for loans from Islamic banks, due to the easier conditions.
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