EU,new funds for investments in neighbour countries

The European Commission has today announced additional support for countries in the Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood in areas such as road building, climate change, energy or supporting businesses. Brussels decided to give 150 million euros of extra funding to the Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF) for this year. 700 million euros have already been foreseen for the period of 2007-2013, out of which 395 million euros have been already allocated. In 2011 91,3 millions have been the contribution of NIF to the Southern neighbourhood countries, including the extension of the metro system in Cairo. According to Stefan Fule, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy, ''the Neighbourhood Investment Facility helps our partners to make a difference in the areas where it is needed most, like energy, transport, the environment or the social sector. It also helps generate additional financial resources and to deliver on concrete projects''. Thanks to the NIF, the European Neighbourhood Fund 'SANAD (which means 'support' in Arabic), was established to help micro, small and medium enterprises particularly affected by the financial crisis in the Southern Neighbourhood. (ANSAmed)