Assessing the potential to use financial instruments to finance rural infrastructure in EU countries

This project is aiming at supporting the European Investment Bank (EIB) and more specifically the EIB Advisory Services in the context of assessing the potential to use financial instruments to finance rural infrastructure in selected countries. The promoter of this study is the European Commission (EC) represented by the Directorate General for Agriculture (DG AGRI). DG AGRI is responsible for promoting targeted policies on agriculture and rural development and the support agenda for farmers. However, DG AGRI is also involved in a number of other areas more directly or indirectly related to Agriculture sector such as rural infrastructure, SME financing, digitalisation and others. Thus, the overall objective of this study is to support DG AGRI through a market study based on individual market assessments in Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Romania and Spain and provide national recommendations targeting the future set up of financial instruments in agreed sectors (renewable energy, energy efficiency, water supply, wastewater/sewage and solid waste management). In addition, high level recommendations will be provided for each sector, allowing instruments to be replicated more widely in the EU. This market study will be carried out and coordinated by AETS with a team composed of 1 Team Leader, 5 National Experts, 4 Sectorial Experts and support of Non-Key Experts. The project will include a kick-off meeting in Luxembourg, desk research, semi-structured interviews, surveys, focus groups, technical and national working meetings as well as a final presentation of the study. The duration of the study was estimated to 6 months (before the COVID-19 pandemie).