The president and the vice-president of the EIB, Philippe Maystadt and Philippe de Fontaine Vive respectively, spoke to reporters about the bank's main activities in 2006 and its future plans.
Last year the EIB financed the completion of the Rijeka-Zagreb highway with 210 million euros and granted the Croatian Roads company another 60 million euros for the reconstruction of a number of road sections throughout the country.
Since 2001 the EIB has granted Croatia loans amounting to more than 900 million euros, most of which was used for the construction and reconstruction of infrastructure, notably roads.
In years to come the EIB plans to expand its operations to include ecology and human resources in close cooperation with the European Commission and the EU fund for pre-accession assistance (IPA).
The EIB is the European Union's financial institution based in Luxembourg. It provides funding for capital investments related to EU development and integration, as well as favourable loans for candidate-countries and potential candidates, Mediterranean countries, Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries, Latin America and Asia.