Railway improvements to boost trade opportunities for local businesses

New rolling stock acquired by Moldova’s state-owned railway company Calea Ferată din Moldova (CFM) will deliver important benefits for the country’s trade, its economy and for people’s lives.

Twelve modern diesel locomotives purchased thanks to joint financing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Union (EU) arrived in Chisinau today. The engines will consume less energy than the current stock and ensure safer, more efficient transport of goods and passengers within Moldova and to its trading partners abroad.

The new rolling stock was manufactured in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, by GE Transportation, now a division of the US company Wabtec, a leading supplier of freight car and locomotive products. GE Transportation was contracted following a tender held by CFM in 2018 in line with EBRD procurement policies and rules.

Igor Dodon, the President of Moldova, expressed gratitude to the representatives of the EBRD and the EIB in Moldova, and to the head of the European Union Delegation to Moldova, for the constant support they provide through various projects that finance strategic sectors. The head of state noted that the efficient management of Moldovan railways is a priority to re-energise the country’s economy.

Adrian Onceanu, CFM Director General, said: “Thanks to the locomotives’ more powerful diesel engines, fewer operations will be needed. This will improve transport efficiency and reduce operating costs. The improved technical characteristics of the new diesel rolling stock will increase the interval between the scheduled maintenance to 92 days from 48 hours, significantly reducing the maintenance costs. They will also help reduce the consumption of diesel fuel by 15-20 per cent and oil by 35-40 per cent, resulting in significant savings.”

Ambassador Peter Michalko, Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova, added: “Today, the EU is once again proving its support to the Moldovan people. The 12 locomotives are acquired with support from the European Union, the EU bank (the EIB) and our partners from the EBRD, with the EU contribution financed by the money of EU citizens. This event today marks an important step towards making Moldova greener and more sustainable. It  also showcases the successful cooperation between the EU and Moldova in this sector, which proves that together we can overcome challenging times and achieve our objectives for a sustainable economy, environmental resilience and social prosperity, for the benefit of the people of Moldova. The EU’s support for the people of Moldova is provided for both infrastructure and reforms, because both need to be done to provide quality of life.”

Angela Sax, EBRD Head of Moldova, said in a video statement: “The arrival of the new locomotives, financed by the EBRD, EIB and EU, is a real milestone: they mean a more modern, greener and dynamic Moldova. The new rolling stock will facilitate Moldova’s trade, keep the economy’s wheels turning and improve lives.”

EIB Vice-President Lilyana Pavlova commented: “It is the task of the EU bank to work towards an upgrade of the transport infrastructure in Moldova. The new locomotives will facilitate a more environmentally friendly transport mode and improve the interconnectivity inside the country as well as with neighbouring countries. This will contribute to better conditions for the transport of passengers and goods.”

The acquisition of the locomotives is part of a large project financed by the EBRD, EIB and EU that also includes the rehabilitation of railway infrastructure and comprehensive reform of CFM to improve safety, efficiency and corporate governance.

The tender for the upgrade of railway infrastructure is currently underway and the company is implementing an action plan to improve corporate governance. In addition, Moldova’s parliament is due to adopt a new Railway Code, legislation based on EU directives that aims to bring the country’s railway sector in line with the Association Agreement with the EU. 

The total project cost is €110 million, of which €5 million is an investment grant from the EU’s Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF) and the remainder from loans by the EBRD and EIB.

The EBRD is a multilateral development bank and a leading institutional investor in Moldova. It has so far invested over €1.3 billion through 130 projects there. The Bank also helps the Moldovan authorities to design policies that improve the business climate in the country.

The EIB is the European Union’s bank. As the largest multilateral borrower and lender by volume, the EIB provides finance and expertise for sound and sustainable investment projects that contribute to furthering EU policy objectives. More than 90 per cent of EIB activity is focused on Europe but it also supports the EU’s external and development policies.

The EU is Moldova’s largest donor and has to date provided over €1 billion in grant funding.

• The EIB is lending €190 million to Evides, a public water company, to improve and maintain its water distribution network beyond 2024, making it more climate-resilient.
• The project is expected to secure or enhance quality for up to 2.5 million residents in three southern provinces of the Netherlands.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a €190 million loan agreement with Evides, the company that manages the drinking water supply in large parts of the south-western Netherlands. The loan supports investments to improve the quality and functionality of water treatment and distribution facilities, and will increase the resilience of the surface water supply during long periods of extreme weather events foreseen in the future, such as more frequent and prolonged drought periods.

More specifically, the financing will sustain Evides’ 2020-2024 investment programme, focusing mainly on the rehabilitation and upgrading of production installations, storage facilities and pumping stations. The project will thus secure or enhance the quality of life of up to 2.5 million residents in the provinces of Zeeland, the south-west of the province South-Holland and the west of the province North Brabant, by improving the reliability and affordability of the drinking water supply service.

“Many people don’t realise the amount of work and investment that goes into the upkeep of such a high quality water network as that of the Netherlands,” said the head of the EIB’s Amsterdam office, Els Sweeney-Bindels. “The EIB has a long track record in the country, having financed nearly all water companies in the last five years, and we’re happy to support Evides again in their push to provide high quality water to their clients.”

“This new facility underlines the mutual trust between the EIB and Evides Waterbedrijf. As a company, we are glad to be able to count on the financial support of the EIB to realise our investment ambitions for a reliable water supply in the years to come,” added Edgar Ruijgers, CFO at Evides N.V.

This is the second operation with Evides funded by the Bank, after a previous operation in 2014.

Background information:

The European Investment Bank is the European Union’s long-term lending institution. This Bank is directly owned by the Member States – the Netherlands owns slightly more than 5% of the shares – and can therefore borrow very cheaply on the capital market. The EIB thus makes long-term financing available for solid investments to contribute to EU policy goals such as sustainable growth and job creation, as well as climate goals. In the past year, the EIB has made nearly €2.5 billion available for projects in the Netherlands, including care, SMEs and energy efficiency projects.

Evides Waterbedrijf is a water company that supplies reliable and pleasant tasting drinking water to 2.5 million clients in its home market – the southern part of the province of Zuid-Holland, the entire province of Zeeland, and the Brabantse Wal. Drinking water is prepared from water sourced 80% from the river Maas, 16% from ground water, and 4% from dune water. Evides is the second-largest water company in The Netherlands based on supply connections, supply volumes and revenue.

July 14, 2020 News

IPforYou: l’EUIPO et l’INPI

L’EUIPO et l’INPI organisent une matinale IPforYou le 21Juillet prochain.

Cette matinale, destinée aux professionnels de la PI aura lieu en ligne et sera l’occasion de faire un rappel des changements introduits par la loi PACTE suivit d’une présentation sur les procédures inter partes en matière de marques auprès de l’EUIPO.

L’évènement aura lieu via Zoom de 10.00 à 11.30

Si vous le souhaitez, vous pouvez vous inscrire ici. Vous recevrez un courriel de confirmation avec le lien et les instructions pour accéder à la matinale.

Agenda:

• 10.00 10.05 Introduction
• 10.05 10.35 Loi PACTE: les évolutions en matière de marque: les mesures qui sont entrées en vigueur le 11 décembre 2019 et qui visent à faciliter l’accès à la protection des marques et à leur défense pour les acteurs de l’économie.
• 10.35 11.15 Les procédures inter partes en matière de marques devant l’EUIPO: ce qu’il faut savoir sur le déroulement des procédures devant l’EUIPO pour les utiliser à bon escient.
• 11.15 11-30 Séance de questions-réponses

Despite the slow lifting of containment measures across most EU+ countries¹, asylum applications remained significantly reduced (-84%) in May compared to pre-COVID levels. At the same time, the number of cases awaiting a decision continue decreasing as national authorities redeploy staff to clear backlogs.

Notwithstanding the gradual easing of containment measures across the EU+, asylum activities have still not fully resumed in many countries. Indeed, just 10 200 applications were lodged in the EU+ in May, up slightly compared to April (8 730), but still a dramatic decline from 65 692 applications in January 2020.

In May, several Member States remained in a state of health emergency, with many only providing for the pre-registration of new asylum applications, but not their formal lodging. This might imply that a backlog is being formed in these countries which will need to be dealt with once full services resume.

As has been reported in previous weeks, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) expects the number of recorded applications to begin increasing as asylum services begin to return to normal operations. This may, however, continue to be limited to a certain degree in the current period as travel restrictions and closed external borders with various non-EU countries remain in place.

In May, the share of repeated applications – i.e. those lodged by applicants in the same country where a previous application was already rejected or discontinued – doubled to 16%, from pre-COVID levels (8%). Similarly, a slightly higher proportion of Unaccompanied Minors applied for asylum (up by more than 1 percentage point to over 4% of all applications), since in many countries’ vulnerable applicants were given priority for lodging applications.
  
Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis continued to lodge the most applications, accounting for a third of all applications lodged in May. The composition of other top countries of origin is more influenced by differential resumption of activities in national asylum authorities, rather than indicative of asylum-related migration trends to the EU+. For example, Venezuelans and Colombians – who were among the top four nationalities of applicants at the beginning of this year (January – March) – lodged only 131 and 87 applications, respectively.

At least 27 300 decisions were issued by asylum authorities (first instance) in May, down by 42% from February². Thus, decision-making continued to be less affected by containment measures compared to the lodging of applications, which shows that asylum authorities continued to process cases despite the temporary suspension of some services.

As a result of more decisions being issued than applications lodged, at the end of May the number of pending cases at first instance decreased to some 462 829, down by more than 32 300 cases from February (-7%).

For more information and an interactive data-visualisation, please visit the Latest Asylum Trends page.

Any further information may be obtained from the European Asylum Support Office on the following email address: press@easo.europa.eu.

¹Includes European Union Member States, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
²Data on first-instance decisions were missing for one count.

PRESS RELEASE

14 July 2020

• Credit standards for loans to firms remain favourable, supported by fiscal and monetary measures
• Surge in firms’ demand for loans continues to reflect emergency liquidity needs
• Credit standards for loans to households tighten further

Credit standards – i.e. banks’ internal guidelines or loan approval criteria – remained broadly unchanged for loans to enterprises (see Chart 1), while tightening further for loans to households for house purchase, consumer credit and other lending to households in the second quarter of 2020, according to the July 2020 bank lending survey (BLS). Banks reported that government loan guarantees played a significant role in most countries for maintaining favourable credit standards for loans to enterprises. Credit standards for loans to households tightened further (a net percentage of 22% for loans to households for house purchase and of 26% for consumer credit and other lending to households). Banks continued to indicate the deteriorated economic outlook, worsened creditworthiness of borrowers and a lower risk tolerance as relevant factors for the tightening of their credit standards for loans to enterprises and households.

In the third quarter of 2020, banks expect a considerable net tightening of credit standards on loans to enterprises, which is reported to be related to the expected end of state guarantee schemes in some large euro area countries. At the same time, the uncertainty of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic still remains high. The net tightening of credit standards on loans to households is expected to continue in the third quarter of 2020.

Overall terms and conditions applied by banks – i.e. the actual terms and conditions agreed in loan contracts tightened slightly in the second quarter of 2020 for new loans to enterprises, while tightening more for housing loans and consumer credit.

Demand from firms for loans or drawing of credit lines surged further in the second quarter of 2020, reaching the highest net balance since the survey was launched in 2003 (see Chart 2). This reflects the particularly strong emergency liquidity needs of firms and possibly precautionary build-up of liquidity buffers during the period when lockdown measures were in force across the euro area. Banks reported that financing needs for inventories and working capital were the main factor underlying the loan demand from firms, which more than offset the negative contribution to loan demand from fixed investment. Net demand for housing loans declined strongly in the second quarter of 2020 and the net demand for consumer credit and other lending to households reached a record low since the survey was launched in 2003. The demand for loans from households was dampened by weaker consumer confidence, worsened housing market prospects and lower spending on durable goods.

Banks expect that net demand for loans to enterprises will increase less in the third quarter of 2020. Banks also expect an increase in net demand for housing loans and in particular for consumer credit and other lending to households in the third quarter of 2020.

Banks reported that non-performing loans (NPLs) had a tightening impact on credit standards and on terms and conditions for all loan categories in the first half of 2020. Risk perceptions and risk aversion related to the general economic outlook and borrowers’ creditworthiness were the main drivers of the tightening impact of NPL ratios.

The euro area bank lending survey, which is conducted four times a year, was developed by the Eurosystem in order to improve its understanding of banks’ lending behaviour in the euro area. The results reported in the July 2020 survey relate to changes observed in the second quarter of 2020 and expected changes in the third quarter of 2020, unless otherwise indicated. The July 2020 survey round was conducted between 5 and 23 June 2020. A total of 144 banks were surveyed in this round, with a response rate of 100%.

For media queries, please contact Silvia Margiocco, tel.: +49 69 1344 6619.

Notes

• A report on this survey round is available at https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/ecb_surveys/bank_lending_survey/html/index.en.html. A copy of the questionnaire, a glossary of BLS terms and a BLS user guide with information on the BLS series keys can also be found on that web page.
• The euro area and national data series are available on the ECB’s website via the Statistical Data Warehouse (http://sdw.ecb.europa.eu/browse.do?node=9691151). National results, as published by the respective national central banks, can be obtained via https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/ecb_surveys/bank_lending_survey/html/index.en.html.
• For more detailed information on the bank lending survey, see Köhler-Ulbrich, P., Hempell, H. and Scopel, S., “The euro area bank lending survey”, Occasional Paper Series, No 179, ECB, 2016 (http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/scpops/ecbop179.en.pdf).