EIB to provide €300m for Romanian rural development

The European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a loan contract to provide 300 million euros (416 million U.S. dollars) for rural development in Romania, according to the press release issued by the EIB Friday. The EIB loan will finance priority projects under the Romanian Rural Development Program for 2007-2013, particularly afforestation, improvement of forest management and protection and small-scale rural and agricultural infrastructure investments. Mihai Tanasescu, Vice-President of the EIB said, "It will finance the upgrading of the environmental performance of more than 44,000 farms and improvement of the management of some 2,400 forestry holdings." The project will generate employment in Romania's rural areas, increase the use of renewable energy resources such as biogas and reduce surface and groundwater pollution from animal husbandry.