EIB: New contract with the Greek State for ELENA

The European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a new contract for the provision of technical assistance within the framework of the ELENA mechanism with the Greek state. Projects supported by the facility will significantly improve energy efficiency in public buildings and other facilities such as schools, hospitals, sports infrastructure and administrative services across the country.

The grant from the ELENA mechanism will help the ministry to prepare three programs concerning renovation projects to improve the energy efficiency of 18 public buildings, the installation of photovoltaic arrays in these buildings that will annually generate electricity from renewable power sources of more than 7GWh, as well as measures to improve energy efficiency in the regional and municipal street lighting network in over 40,000 street lighting points.

The new contract

The new contract between the EIB and the Ministry of Development and Investments of Greece was announced on 12 January in Athens during the signing ceremony at the Ministry of Development and Investments. The ceremony was attended by Ioannis Tsakiris, Deputy Minister of Development and Investments, Ioannis Kaltsas, head of the EIB’s Investment Team for Greece, Tanja Tanayama, head of the InvestEU advisory hub, Louise White, ELENA coordinator at the EIB and Alexandros Zakharov, senior adviser at the EIB.

“Through our new collaboration with the EIB, our goal is twofold: The strengthening of the valuable long-term cooperation of the Ministry of Development and Investments with the EIB in new fields and the support of the involved bodies of our country in energy saving and in dealing with climate change change.

In particular, the initiative of the Ministry of Development and Investments “PRODIGEE” aims at the maturation of energy efficiency actions and receives funding of €2.5 million from the ELENA Facility of the European Investment Bank (EIB). With the PRODIGEE project, we aim to mature projects and actions for energy upgrading of street lighting, upgrading the energy efficiency of public buildings and installing photovoltaic systems on the built environment, actions that give a positive sign to environmental sustainability and the reduction of pollutant emissions. Final Beneficiaries will be Regions, Municipalities, Public Administration Bodies, NPDD and NPID supervised indirectly, or directly by the State. Alongside our agreement with the EIB’s Advisory Hub, we are coming to contribute dynamically and substantially to the formulation of proposals to adapt development investments in our country to climate change,” said Ioannis Tsakiris, Deputy Minister of Development and Investments of Greece.

“In order to meet the 2030 climate goal, energy efficiency must be prioritized and we are very happy that the contract we signed with the Ministry of Development and Investment under the ELENA mechanism will help a group of experts at the national level to prepare much-needed investments energy upgrade” said Louise White, ELENA coordinator at the EIB.

Greece strengthens cooperation with the ELENA mechanism

The latest agreement marks the fifth project in Greece to receive technical assistance from the ELENA facility, and this marks the first agreement to cover the entire country. To date, projects have been completed for the development of smart grid infrastructure in the off-grid Aegean islands, and projects for efficient, environmentally friendly transport, public lighting and public buildings in the periphery of Epirus. Two more projects are ongoing – the project “Improving Energy Efficiency in the South Aegean Region” and the project “INTERACT in Crete” (INTegrated sustainable enERgy ACTions/integrated sustainable energy actions).

Based on the latest agreement, the Ministry of Development and Investments will use the technical assistance of the ELENA mechanism to primarily support the implementation of the ELECTRA program, which includes energy upgrading investments with a total value of more than 700 million euros.

ELENA – supporting sustainable local projects across Europe

The European Assistance Facility for Local Energy Programs (ELENA) is a joint initiative of the EIB and the European Commission. The facility provides grants that support the preparation of sustainable projects by providing technical assistance for investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy, with a focus on buildings and innovative urban transport. The EIB helps those eligible to draw up their programs to implement their investments in the best possible way.

The ELENA facility, established in 2009, helps public and private actors to implement projects in the fields of energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainable transport, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The ELENA facility is available to support three key areas: sustainable energy, sustainable transport and sustainable housing.

In the period 2014-2020, the ELENA mechanism joined the “Horizon 2020” program. The ELENA facility will continue in the current multi-year financial framework (2021-2027) under the InvestEU programme.

Greece will benefit from the EIB’s expertise in climate change adaptation

Based on the supplementary agreement signed between the EIB and the Ministry of Development and Investment of Greece to provide technical advisory services on climate change adaptation, Greece will leverage the EIB’s significant expertise to accelerate investments across the country. Under the agreement, also signed today, the EIB will provide free targeted advisory services to the Greek government with the help of the InvestEU advisory hub.

In Greece, as in many other countries, infrastructure and public services are exposed to many types of climate risks. Therefore, the aim of the EIB’s advisory support is to help Greek national and regional authorities focus more on climate risks and adaptation measures when planning their public investments. Thanks to this new country-wide support, the EIB will also help many regional authorities review their regional adaptation plans and identify adaptation investment opportunities.