1999/786/EC: Council Decision of 29 November 1999 granting a Community guarantee to the European Investment Bank (EIB) against losses under loans for projects for the reconstruction of the earthquake-stricken areas of Turkey

• Articles: 5

Article 1

Objective

The Community shall grant the European Investment Bank (hereinafter referred to as "the EIB") a global guarantee in respect of all payments not received by it but due in respect of credits opened, in accordance with its usual criteria, for investment projects carried out for the replacement, rehabilitation or reconstruction of surface and subsurface infrastructure, industrial installations and SMEs as well as urban infrastructure and housing affected by the earthquake of August 1999 in Turkey and its recent aftershocks.

Article 2

Ceiling and conditions

1. The overall ceiling of the credits opened shall be EUR 600 million or the equivalent thereof.

2. The Community guarantee with respect to credits opened by the EIB under this Decision up to and until the entry into force of the successor decision to Decision 97/256/EC shall take the form of an extension of the global guarantee granted to the EIB under the general external lending mandate, as laid down in Decision 97/256/EC.

As of the entry into force of the successor decision, the Community guarantee covering any subsequent and additional credits opened by the EIB under this Decision shall form an extension of the global guarantee granted in the successor decision.

The extension of the guarantee, whether under Decision 97/256/EC or its successor decision, shall be restricted to 65 % of the aggregate amount of credits opened under this Decision, plus all related sums.

3. For the purposes of lending under this Decision, the EIB shall exceptionally not be obliged to seek non-governmental guarantees to cover commercial risk.

Article 3

Reporting

The Commission shall inform the European Parliament and the Council each year of the loan operations carried out under this Decision and shall, at the same time, submit an assessment of the implementation of this Decision and of coordination between the international financial institutions involved in the reconstruction effort in Turkey. The Commission information submitted to the European Parliament and the Council shall include an assessment of the contribution of the lending under this Decision to the replacement, rehabilitation or reconstruction of infrastructual and industrial installations affected by the earthquake, taking into account the operational objectives and appropriate measurements of their fulfilment to be established by the EIB for lending under this Decision. For these purposes, the EIB shall transmit to the Commission the appropriate information.

Article 4

Duration

The present guarantee shall cover loans signed during a period of three years from the date of adoption of this Decision. If, on expiry of those three years, the loans signed by the EIB have not attained the overall ceiling referred to in Article 2, this period shall be automatically extended by six months.

Article 5

Final provisions

1. The EIB and the Commission shall fix the terms on which the guarantee is to be given.

2. This Decision shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

It shall take effect on the day of its adoption.

Done at Brussels, 29 November 1999.

For the Council

The President

S. NIINISTÖ

(1) OJ L 293, 12.11.1994, p. 1. Regulation as amended by Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1149/1999 (OJ L 139, 2.6.1999, p. 1).

(2) Council Decision 97/256/EC of 14 April 1997 granting a Community guarantee to the European Investment Bank against losses under loans for projects outside the Community (central and eastern Europe an countries, Mediterranean countries, Latin American and Asian countries, South Africa, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) (OJ L 102, 19.4.1997, p. 33). Decision as last amended by Decision 98/729/EC (OJ L 346, 22.12.1998, p. 54).