Greener housing and sustainable living spaces

• New models for setting up financial instruments available through fi-compass, an initiative of the European Commission and EIB Advisory Services.
• These new blueprints support the objectives of the REPowerEU and New European Bauhaus initiatives.
• Providing inspiration and replicable options for combining loans with grants, the models will help finance more energy efficiency investments in buildings and promote more sustainable, inclusive and aesthetical territorial development.

At an event in Brussels the European Commission Directorate for Regional and Urban policy and the European Investment Bank have launched two new model financial instruments in support of the REPowerEU and New European Bauhaus initiatives. Announced jointly by EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira and Lilyana Pavlova, EIB Vice-President, the models give options on how to combine EU grants together with loans on favourable terms, to finance investments in support of energy efficiency and territorial development investments.

The models will give authorities who manage EU funds, as well as financial intermediaries such as banks, a practical ‘how to’ guide to easily set up financial instruments, to provide funding and advisory support to investments in energy efficiency and territorial development. They include a menu of options, which provide tangible and practical solutions to common challenges encountered by financial instrument practitioners. Crucially, the models offer a path to leverage the funds available through the EU budget as well as EIB co-financing, to mobilise additional resources from commercial banks and private investors for such schemes. 

EIB Vice-President Lilyana Pavlova said, “The EIB is committed to stepping up its support for Europe’s energy sector through its lending, fund management and advisory activities. We believe that this combined package of support can play a crucial role in speeding up the transition to a low-carbon economy. Hopefully, these models can inspire more managing authorities and other stakeholders to make more use of financial instruments, and we will redouble our efforts in ensuring that the necessary financing is available to meet both the EU’s long-term goals to reduce carbon emissions, and the immediate needs to bolster our energy resilience.”

The model financial instruments were developed jointly under fi-compass, an advisory mandate managed by the EIB’s Advisory Services and the European Commission. Financial instruments have a long track-record in promoting energy efficiency interventions in both public buildings and private housing around Europe as well as in supporting urban and territorial development. They can help boost investments for building renovation to reduce greenhouse emissions, improve quality of life, and fight energy poverty.

Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, said: “To achieve our climate and energy efficiency targets, we need to mobilize private investments. These new financial instrument models are yet another example of how Cohesion Policy contributes to the European Green Deal. The combination of grants and loans in these models can leverage such investments and encourage deeper renovations and a more sustainable, inclusive and aesthetic territorial development. I invite Member States and Managing Authorities to make use of these models.”

The models provide an incentive for local authorities as they will be backed by a major commitment of Cohesion policy resources by the European Commission, to support the use of financial instruments to meet the objectives of the Green Deal. In combining EU Funds and other public resources with loan financing from the EIB and other financial intermediaries, more financing becomes available for green projects, in line with both the EU’s Green Deal and associated initiatives, and the EIB’s Climate Bank Roadmap.