Financiarul

Romania’s energy intensity is 1.5 times greater than the average in the European Union, the head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Office in Romania Claudia Pendred told a conference on the possibility of cutting costs from inefficient energy consumption.

This state of affairs made EBRD to allocate around 160 million euros to boosting energy efficiency, which represents a quarter of total investments carried out in Romania. EBRD and the European Union set up a finance facility named EEFF.
The head of the EBRD Office in Romania said that projects with a value of less than 2.5 million euros could receive financing, the companies being directed towards the Romanian banks that had been granted funds from EBRD, in order to lend money to companies, i.e. BCR, BRD, CEC Bank and Banca Transilvania.

The companies may benefit from free technical assistance, but the accessed funds must be used for energy efficiency projects. Companies operating in armament systems, real estate or other fields are not eligible.
The companies choosing EEFF financing may receive from EBRD a 15 percent grant of the value borrowed (up to 375,000 euros) after the investment is completed.
Within projects related to energy and energy intensity reduction, EBRD focuses on projects dealing with energy efficiency increase and power generation from renewable energy sources.

In order for a Romanian company to have access to the funds under the Business Advisory Services (BAS) programme managed by EBRD, it must have Romanian majority private capital, maximum 250 employees and over two-year activity experience in its line of business. At present, the BAS programme is running in 19 countries from South-East Europe and Asia and has 750 ongoing projects.
BAS strategy is to provide financial support for projects in need of consultancy services, on the condition that these projects should have as sole objective the energy efficiency.