Europe’s alternative fuels infrastructure getting a boost from new EIB and European Commission support
An Agreement between the European Investment Bank and the European Commission sets their cooperation for blending under the “Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility” (EUR 1.5 billion of EU grants available) with financing from the EIB, as primary Implementing Partner.
The new blending mechanism will help attract additional financing or equity investments for projects and businesses in alternative fuels infrastructure, with public authorities and private financiers expected to come on board.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Commission signed an agreement that will make it possible to combine EU grants and long-term EIB financing for alternative fuels infrastructure projects. The agreement comes under the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility (AFIF) and is part of the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) transport programme. It will make over €1.5 billion in EU grants available by the end of 2023 for alternative fuels infrastructure, including electric fast-charging and hydrogen refuelling stations on the TEN-T road network. In addition to the EIB, other private and public banks can also benefit from the facility.
“We are very proud that with our partners from the European Commission, we can offer companies and projects in Europe new support for alternative fuels infrastructure development,” said EIB Vice-President Kris Peeters, who is responsible for transport operations. “Catalysing the development of alternative fuels infrastructure is crucial to putting the European Union on track to meeting the European Green Deal’s objective of cutting transport emissions by 90% by 2050. We can make each euro more impactful by offering a smart way to combine available EU financial support, and getting more private investors on board. Ultimately, this will accelerate the development and deployment of transport innovation and new, sustainable infrastructure.”
EU Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean said: “The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility brings us a step closer to making our objectives a reality – 1 million recharging points by 2025 and 3.5 million by 2030. To hit our target, we need an investment of roughly €1.5 billion annually. AFIF is a new addition to our range of financial support options, bringing together funds from the EU budget, from institutional investors and private lenders to achieve a higher impact. We are now seeking cooperation with promotional banks to boost investment in the transition to sustainable transport, and I welcome today’s agreement with the European Investment Bank, our first partner.”
How to apply for financing under the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility
A call for proposals was published on the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) website on 16 September 2021.
The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility will be implemented through a rolling call until 2023, with five cut-off dates for submitting proposals. CINEA is managing the promotion and evaluation of the call.
A virtual information day about the AFIF took place on 14 October 2021. The recording, presentations and other material are available for download here. An FAQ page will be available in the Funding & Tender Portal.
Who decides which projects will receive grants and EIB financing under the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility?
The European Commission will manage the grant component directly and exclusively .The EIB will not be involved in the Commission’s management or decision-making processes.
Proposals will be evaluated by the Commission/CINEA. Applicants will receive the evaluation results no later than six months after the submission deadline, and grant agreements will be signed within nine months.
While eligibility for the grant will be decided by the Commission, the Bank will apply its own eligibility criteria and due diligence process when approving co-financing under the AFIF, as is currently the case for any other alternative fuels operation. AFIF operations will be given the same priority as other Bank operations. AFIF grants will only be available for projects for which EIB financing has been approved and the grant agreements will only be signed after the signature of the associated EIB financing contracts. More information on EIB financing can be found here.
The EIB’s annual financing for climate-related transport projects is over EUR 8 billion per year since 2016. Find more about the EIB and transport here.
Continued EU funding commitment to support energy efficiency in urban areas
European Commission allocates another €35 million in support of the European Local Energy Assistance (ELENA), a joint initiative with the European Investment Bank
ELENA provides project development assistance and expertise for public and private stakeholders at local, regional and national level
The European Commission has provided fresh funding to continue the work of the European Local Energy Assistance (ELENA) facility, implemented by the European Investment Bank (EIB). Under the new agreement, the initiative will support projects across its sustainable energy (€30 million) and sustainable transport (€5 million) portfolios. This will further stimulate investments in energy efficiency, especially in buildings, heat networks, street lighting and clean urban transport. The EIB will ensure the selection of high-quality projects and will lend its expertise to assist with their successful implementation.
Reducing energy consumption is a central objective of the European Green Deal, which aims to cut the European Union’s energy needs by 32.5% by 2030. The State of the Union 2020 indicated a drive to increase this ambition, for instance via policy initiatives such as the Renovation Wave. Around 40% of all energy across the European Union is used in the building sector. The goal of the Renovation Wave is to double annual energy renovation rates in the next ten years. This ties in with ELENA’s third project portfolio – sustainable residential – which aims to invigorate large-scale refurbishment of the vast housing stock. It has a dedicated €97 million budget for technical assistance to make energy efficiency more attractive to private investors.
Across its three portfolios, ELENA has established itself as the go-to support facility for both public and private sector energy efficiency projects. Its hundreds of beneficiaries include central, regional and local government authorities, energy agencies and one-stop shops, banks and other financial intermediaries, and private entities.
“Accelerating energy efficiency investments in all sectors is crucial, if we want to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change,” said Thomas Östros, EIB Vice-President in charge of energy. “Over the past 11 years ELENA has shown that sound technical support is important for investment mobilisation and project implementation. I warmly welcome the continued trust of the European Commission and I am confident that our experts will identify projects in which ELENA grants will make a real difference. It is joint efforts like these that pave Europe’s path to a sustainable future.”
European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, said: “Energy efficiency first is the guiding principle of the EU’s energy policy and a central tenet of the European Green Deal: the cleanest energy is the energy we do not use. In addition to being green, investment in renovation, heating, lighting and clean transport will also bring tangible improvements to people’s lives. Working with EIB and ELENA ensures that the best projects are being deployed close to the citizens.”
The European Local Energy Assistance (ELENA) facility was launched in 2009 and has supported some 120 projects ever since. It has disbursed more than €200 million in grants and enabled over €7 billion of investment.
Germany: EIB and European Commission provide CureVac with a €75 million financing for vaccine development and expansion of manufacturing
European Investment Bank and CureVac sign €75 million loan agreement for the development and large-scale production of vaccines, including CureVac’s vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2
The EIB loan will support CureVac’s activities to complete its new messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) production facility in Tübingen, Germany
The transaction is financed under the Infectious Diseases Finance Facility of Horizon 2020, the EU research and innovation programme for 2014-2020
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and CureVac, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of transformative medicines based on optimised mRNA, entered into a €75 million loan agreement to support the Company’s ongoing development of vaccines against infectious diseases, including its vaccine candidate CVnCoV aimed at preventing SARS-CoV-2 infections. In addition, the loan will support the Company’s efforts to expand its existing Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certified production capabilities and accelerate the completion of its fourth production site in Tübingen, Germany. The EIB financing will be provided in three €25 million tranches upon completion of pre-defined milestones.
“It does not need a pandemic to prove that new vaccines can be breakthroughs for public health,” said Ambroise Fayolle, EIB Vice-President in charge of innovation and health. “But in times like ours it becomes clear just how important they are to keep societies running globally. In fact, the only way to end the dramatic situation the world is facing since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic would be a safe and effective vaccine. Thanks to our cooperation with the European Commission, we can finance more and more innovative biotech and medtech companies, such as CureVac, in their research and development of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics solutions. This is an added value of Europe, and the EIB does everything it can to maximise this value for the sake of people.”
Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “The coronavirus will be with us, as long as we do not have a vaccine against it. This is why our work on this front, together with international actors, is so crucial. Recently we have presented our vaccines strategy to accelerate the development, manufacturing and deployment of vaccines against the novel coronavirus. And since the beginning of the pandemic, we increased the funding for the Infectious Diseases Finance Facility by €400 million to allow the EIB to process a higher volume of projects addressing this disease. With our support to CureVac we accelerate our efforts to find safe and effective solutions for everyone in Europe and globally.”
Pierre Kemula, Chief Financial Officer of CureVac, added: “We are very pleased with the EIB financing. It allows us to further invest in our mRNA technology platform to fight life-threatening diseases. We are working intensively to develop a safe and effective low dose mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 and started a Phase 1 clinical trial of CVnCoV in June. We are looking forward to expediting the completion of our industrial-scale production site to provide critically needed supply of innovative mRNA-based vaccines.”
About CureVac’s mRNA technology platform
CureVac’s mRNA technology platform has shown potential in the clinical development and production of mRNA based vaccines and therapeutics. The Company’s proprietary RNAoptimizer® platform aims to optimize the properties of mRNA medicines based on its three core pillars: protein design, mRNA optimization and mRNA delivery. The technology can be tailored to induce varying degrees of immune responses against specific protein antigens of choice, potentially providing potent prophylactic vaccines for the prevention of infectious diseases at a low dose, such as Rabies, as well as immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. The technology can also be adapted to avoid immune activation for purposes of protein therapy and antibodies, thereby providing potential new therapeutic modalities for patients suffering from a vast range of diseases.
The Infectious Diseases Finance Facility (IDFF) of the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme backs the loan to CureVac. The IDFF is an example of successful collaboration between the European Commission and the EIB in the face of a health crisis. Through the IDFF, the EIB has supported 13 companies with total lending of €316 million for developing cures, vaccines and diagnostics against various infectious diseases, most prominently the coronavirus.