The facility is combining necessary longer-term financing with technical expertise, two crucial components which often remain difficult to obtain.
The €75m framework is designed to provide credit lines to local banks in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia for on-lending to private and municipal borrowers for energy efficiency and renewable energy investments. In the first phase it is now being launched in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia and Serbia.
WeBSEFF II is part of the Regional Energy Efficiency Programme for the Western Balkans, a joint initiative of the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) and the EBRD. Under this umbrella, the European Union is supporting WeBSEFF II with €11.5m in grant funds for technical cooperation programs and investment incentives for borrowers, who will benefit from consultation and advice such as free energy audits.
The Western Balkans region has significant untapped potential for energy efficiency investments, while a number of barriers remain in the market. WeBSEFF II has been designed to address those issues in accordance with the objectives of the participating countries’ National Energy Efficiency Action Plans (NEEAPS), which give a prominent role to the public sector. Key goals are to maximise the energy-saving potential, open up new markets and ensure an efficient and effective allocation of funds.
The first loans under the new framework are a €5m loan to Raiffeisen Bank Bosnia and Herzegovina and a €20m loan to Zagrebacka Banka d.d. in Croatia. Two further loans with two commercial banks for a total of €25m are under preparation in Croatia alone.
Vedrana Jelusic Kasic, EBRD director for Croatia, said, "The new facility represents an important step forward in our efforts to support the sustainable use of energy in the Western Balkans, a region where considerable shortcomings persist. Building on previous work in the field we are putting special emphasis on renewable sources of energy and have widened the set of eligible participants to the municipal sector where large untapped potential for savings remains."
The new facility builds on the success of the €60m WeBSEFF I, launched by the EBRD in 2009, under which 123 energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, totalling €55m of loans, have been financed to date, while eight banks across three countries have participated. The EU has provided grant financing to the framework.
