EIB approves €880 million in funding for Italy

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved funding totalling €880 million to support a road building project in Italy and the expansion of country's power distribution network.

The funds include a €500 million credit line to Italian toll road operator Autostrade, which is expanding the capacity of a 17km stretch of the A1 motorway between Florence and Bologna.

The A1 is a main Italian motorway corridor and the latest funding has been approved as part of the European Union's Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) funding programme.

Separately, the EIB also approved a €380 million loan to support Italian power utility Enel's 2012 to 2014 programme of investment in its distribution network. The main goal of the project is to connect 240,000 new users, 37% of which will be in southern Italy.