The EU bank

FEMIP continues to support the priority projects of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) – cleaning up the Mediterranean, the Solar Plan, and maritime and land highways – in accordance with the recommendations of the Euro-Mediterranean finance ministers.

In this regard, FEMIP participated in the launch of the InfraMed Fund, the first financing facility of the Union for the Mediterranean. InfraMed is the largest fund dedicated to investment in infrastructure in the southern and eastern Mediterranean regions.

• The Pollution abatement in the Mediterranean Sea took a step forward as the facility to prepare and implement the projects of the Mediterranean Hot Spot Investment Programme, launched in 2009 and managed by the EIB, published its first results.

• In relation to the Mediterranean Solar Plan, in October 2010 FEMIP published a study financed by its Trust Fund, which examined the potential for and bottlenecks hindering renewable energy deployment in the Mediterranean region.

• As regards maritime and land highways, the EIB and its partners drew up in cooperation with the Mediterranean partner countries a list of priority regional projects for which financial backing will be sought. The Bank is already providing the necessary technical assistance to prepare some of these projects, e.g. the rail link between Damascus and Amman and a logistics platform in Homs, Syria.

The FEMIP Trust Fund also took part in a feasibility study regarding the creation of the Mediterranean Business Development Initiative to provide support for SMEs. This study was approved by the Euro-Mediterranean finance ministers at the joint FEMIP/ECOFIN ministerial meeting dedicated to the Union for the Mediterranean held in Brussels in May 2010. This initiative is also one of the UfM’s priority projects.

At the institutional level, the EIB and the Secretariat of the UfM signed a memorandum of understanding on 17 January 2011 in Barcelona in order to implement an improved regional strategy to better promote regional development.