The European Investment Bank, the EU’s long-term lender, is making a €29 million ($34 million) low-cost loan to develop a new hospital facility in Treviso, Italy, near Venice.
Cost-savings from the cheaper financing — about €1.8 million — will go into an impact fund to invest in education and health innovation and research for the local community.
The hospital loan is the first from the EIB to also seed an impact fund. It was issued via the European Fund for Strategic Investments, a facility created by the European Commission to finance projects relevant to the “Juncker Plan.”
The plan, developed in response to widespread cuts in public infrastructure spending after the 2008 recession, calls for €500 billion in infrastructure investment to catalyze new public and private support for transit, energy, broadband and telecoms, as well as schools and hospitals.
In June, the fund invested €10 million into a social-impact bond in Finland aimed at integrating refugees into the Finnish labor market.
