The European Investment Fund (EIF) is launching a 360m euro plan to build infrastructure links between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas, with Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Croatia and Slovenia taking part. The European Investment Bank (EIB) press office told BTA.

Together with organisations from the six countries, the EIF today announced the creation of a fund of funds that will manage infrastructure investment under the Three Seas Initiative. The money will go to projects in energy, transport, digital links and social infrastructure.

The launch ceremony took place in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, hosted by Slovenia's development bank, SID Banka. It was held during the general assembly of ELTI, the European Association of Long-Term Investors.

The six national organisations working with the EIF are:

  • Poland's development bank BGK;
  • Romania's development bank BID;
  • the National Development Bank of Lithuania (ILTE);
  • Bulgaria's JEREMIE Bulgaria;
  • Croatia's Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR);
  • Slovenia's SID Banka.

The six organisations will put in 180m euros between them, and the EIF will match that with double the amount. The EIB says this is the fund's biggest joint commitment yet anywhere in the EU. It is also the EIF's first multi-country investment programme aimed specifically at infrastructure. The goal is to raise at least 2bn euros through various infrastructure funds.

The new fund of funds will spread the money across several separate funds. One will be run by a new team made up of people from the participating countries and from pan-European funds that channel capital into the region.

The plan is to back more investment strategies and teams, train people to work on infrastructure projects in the region, and pull in extra money from private and institutional investors.

The fund of funds aims to get the countries to put in 250m euros combined, with the EIF doubling that through joint investment.

On the Bulgarian side, the initiative involves JEREMIE Bulgaria, a holding fund managed and owned by the EIF on behalf of the Bulgarian government, overseen by the ministry of innovation and digital transformation.

"Bulgaria's involvement in the fund of funds managing infrastructure investment under the Three Seas Initiative, with a 25m euro commitment through JEREMIE Bulgaria, is an investment in projects that can change connectivity across the region and Europe," said Mira Yosifova, deputy minister of innovation and digital transformation, quoted in the EIB statement.

She said that with the EIF's help and experience, the fund can bring public and private money together in one place for investment in energy, transport, and digital and social infrastructure. "This is exactly where regional cooperation can create real value for business, society and the economies of the Three Seas region," she added.

BTA notes that the memorandum of understanding between the participating countries was signed on 28 April this year in Dubrovnik, Croatia, committing them to launch the new regional initiative for better connectivity.