EIB rejects PPP plan for Line 4 of the metro

eKathimerini — The European Investment Bank has reacted strongly to the effort by the Greek Infrastructure Ministry to proceed with the construction of Line 4 of the Athens metro through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP).

The EIB has informed Athens that, as an exception, it intends to finance 75 percent of this huge project, but sets the rest of the funding coming from the new community support framework (ESPA) as a necessary condition. The refusal of the ministry is causing problems within the government, as it puts the implementation of the project at risk.

Line 4 of the metro is a project that could have enormous benefits for the capital, but Infrastructure Minister Christos Spirtzis’s handling of the issue is threatening its implementation.

EIB officials recently informed Athens they were prepared to raise the lender’s funding from 50 percent (as in the financing of metro projects to date) to 75 percent, but the minister insists on the remaining 380 million euros being covered not by money from Brussels but private capital through a PPP.