WRITTEN QUESTION E-2232/03 by Sebastiano Musumeci (UEN) to the Council. Euro-Mediterranean Bank in Sicily.
Date: 2003-07-03
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Investment Bank, Sicily, seat of institution

13.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 65 E/121

failure. The Commission has issued two
Commission has paid attention to presence of market
Communications (1) on the repercussions of these terrorist attacks and has proposed a Regulation (2) in
order to provide for minimum insurance requirements. The adoption of this proposal is still pending.

Outside the aviation sector, the Commission has not yet received any State aid notification for schemes of
the type mentioned by the Honourable Member.

(1) COM(2001) 574 final COM(2002) 320 final.
(2) COM(2003) 454 final.

(2004/C 65 E/133)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2232/03

by Sebastiano Musumeci (UEN) to the Council

(3 July 2003)

Subject: Euro-Mediterranean Bank in Sicily

At the request of the Laeken European Council of December 2001, the Commission and the Council have
examined the possibility of setting up a Euro-Mediterranean Bank. The Barcelona European Council of
15/16 March 2002 approved the creation of a reinforced Euro-Mediterranean investment facility within
the EIB, complemented by a Euro-Mediterranean partnership arrangement and an EIB representative office
in the area.

Could the Council therefore indicate:

1. what criteria will be adopted for selecting the country in which to base the Euro-Mediterranean

branch of the EIB;

2. whether it does not consider that Sicily might be the most appropriate region in which to site that
bank, given its geopolitical position in the Europe-Africa-Asia basin and its age-old historical, cultural
and religious tradition?

Reply

(17 November 2003)

As noted in the Member’s question, the European Council, in Barcelona on 15/16 March 2002, approved,
in paragraph 52 of its Conclusions, the Ecofin Council’s decision on the creation of a reinforced Euro-
Mediterranean investment facility within the EIB. This facility was established by the European Investment
Bank in accordance with the Council decision as the ‘Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and
Partnership’ or ‘FEMIP’.

Taking into account all the elements cited by the Member in his question, the FEMIP was established with
a financial facility, complemented by the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership arrangement, which pursues
co-operation in the region through its ‘Policy Dialogue and Coordination Committee’, with co-operation
further enhanced by the establishment of a representative office of the EIB in the Euro-Mediterranean
region.

Such a regional office was opened in Cairo in July of 2003.

On the same occasion, the European Council Conclusions also noted in paragraph 52 that ‘On the basis of
an evaluation of the Facility’s performance, and taking into account the outcome of consultations with our
Barcelona Process partners, a decision on the incorporation of an EIB majority-owned subsidiary dedicated
to our Mediterranean partner countries will be considered and taken one year after the launching of the
Facility.’ As the FEMIP was launched in October 2002, the evaluation of its first year of operation is
expected to be completed in the Autumn of this year, with the associated decision on the incorporation of
a subsidiary to be taken in light of that evaluation.

The Council is expected to discuss the evaluation and the outcome of consultations with Barcelona Process
partners in November, at which point it may consider the question of the incorporation of an EIB
majority-owned subsidiary.