EU cash for Warsaw facelift

The funds will be used to finance mainly small- and medium-scale urban development and urban-renewal projects, and will also support investment projects in local transportation, environmental protection, health and education, conservation and cultural heritage, and the provision of priority community facilities.

"The EIB supports projects of modernization and development of urban infrastructure in Poland as they contribute significantly to the increase of the quality of life in Polish cities. The EIB loan will help to implement the Warsaw Development Plan with positive implications to the urban environment and economic development of the Polish capital," said Ivan Pilip, vice-president of the EIB's operations in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Sławomir Skrzypek, deputy mayor of Warsaw, was in Luxembourg to put pen to paper for the loan.

The EIB, which is the EU's long-term financing institution, has a history of investment in Warsaw. It has already stumped up around zł.200 million for the development and modernization of Warsaw's municipal infrastructure, as well as EUR 45 (zł.180) million for the construction of the Poludnie water-treatment plant. Since 1990 the EIB has put some zł.40 billion into various projects in Poland.