Officially launched in 2008 as the Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF), the Neighbourhood Investment Platform (NIP) is a mechanism aimed at mobilising additional funding to finance capital-intensive infrastructure projects in EU partner countries covered by the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in sectors such as transport, energy, environment and social development. The NIP also supports the private sector, mainly through investment grants and risk capital operations targeting small and medium-sized enterprises.
It does so by pooling grant resources from the EU budget and the EU Member States and using them to leverage loans from European Financial Institutions as well as contributions from the ENP partner countries themselves.
In this way, the European Union backs its neighbours' priorities and supports them in carrying out key investments and boosting economic development. This is expected to have a significant positive impact on their population as well as on European citizens given our common interests in stability and welfare.
By pooling different resources, the NIP plays a key role in donor coordination and increasing aid effectiveness in accordance with the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action.
In addition, the NIP supports the implementation of regional and multilateral processes, in particular the Union for the Mediterranean, the Southern Mediterranean Investment Coordination Initiative, the Eastern Partnership and the Black Sea Synergy.
Between 2008 and 2018, a grand total of 156 projects have received final approval for NIP support. Funding comes mainly from the EU budget and is complemented by direct contributions from Member States which are kept in a trust fund managed by the European Investment Bank. The total amount of NIP support allocated to projects over this period comes to €2.320 billion, mobilising more than €21 billion provided by (publicly owned) Development Financial Institutions (DFIs), typically European or majority-owned by the EU and its Member States, and leveraging a total funding volume of more than €38 billion.
