Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 28 January 2026 the European Commission's CINEA agency allocated a EUR 103.69 million grant to Delgaz Grid SA (Romania), Elektroenergien Sistemen Operator EAD (Bulgaria) and Transelectrica (Romania) under the 2025 Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Energy call, funding the "CARMEN: Smart Grids Increasing RES and Interconnectivity in the SEE Region" Project of Common and Mutual Interest. The grant supports cross-border smart-grid works to strengthen electricity interconnection and renewable-energy integration between Romania and Bulgaria. It is one of 14 cross-border energy infrastructure projects sharing roughly EUR 650 million from the same call round. CINEA formally awarded the grant certificate for the project on 21 May 2026 at the Energy Infrastructure Forum.

On 28 January 2026 the European Commission's CINEA agency allocated a EUR 180.03 million grant to Repsol Generación Electrica SA under the 2025 Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Energy call, funding the "Construction of the Reversible Pumped-Storage Hydroelectric Power Plant AGUAYO II" Project of Common and Mutual Interest in Cantabria, Spain. It was the single largest individual allocation of the round and the only pumped-storage project among the 14 cross-border energy infrastructure projects sharing roughly EUR 650 million from the same call. AGUAYO II will support electricity system flexibility and renewable-energy integration; CINEA states it will reduce curtailment of renewable output by an estimated 1,438 GWh/year (about 7.3% of Spain's total curtailed renewables) and cut CO2 emissions by roughly 566,000 tonnes/year by displacing two nearby combined-cycle gas plants. CINEA formally awarded the grant certificate for the project on 21-22 May 2026 at the 12th Energy Infrastructure Forum in Copenhagen. Commissioning is targeted for 31 December 2030.

The European Investment Bank and Commerzbank signed a EUR 500 million line-by-line guarantee agreement under the new Growth for Energy (G4E) programme, the first of its kind in Europe. The EIB covers up to 50% of Commerzbank's risk exposure on qualifying sub-loans (each project under EUR 80 million) to German Stadtwerke municipal utilities financing renewable electricity generation, district heating and electricity grid reinforcement, with the risk-sharing structure expected to mobilise roughly EUR 1.2 billion of total investment in local energy infrastructure to support Germany's Energiewende.

NRW.BANK, the state-owned promotional bank of North Rhine-Westphalia, provided EUR 22.9 million in financing to Stadtwerke Solingen, the municipal utility of the city of Solingen, as part of a roughly EUR 98 million package (structured with additional partners DAL Deutsche Anlagen-Leasing, Deutsche Kreditbank AG and DZ BANK AG) to renew and expand the utility's electricity, gas and water distribution infrastructure. The funded works include gas and water pipeline renewal and expansion of electricity distribution assets such as transformer stations, meters and smart-metering systems, with implementation planned through 2028.

On 16 June 2025 the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a EUR 1.6 billion loan facility with French and Spanish transmission-system operators RTE and Red Eléctrica to finance the Bay of Biscay electricity interconnection, the first submarine power link between the two countries. First tranches totalling EUR 1.2 billion were signed at EIB headquarters in Luxembourg; the project separately holds a EUR 578 million EU Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) grant. The 400 km link (300 km submarine, connecting Cubnezais, France to Gatika, Spain) will raise cross-border exchange capacity from 2,800 MW to 5,000 MW and is expected to enter service in 2028.

On 30 April 2025, the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a long-term credit facility of up to EUR 450 million with EWE AG, one of Germany's leading regional energy and infrastructure companies, to finance the renovation, reinforcement and extension of medium- and low-voltage electricity distribution infrastructure in Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen). The facility is the largest EIB loan EWE has received and supports a total investment programme of more than EUR 700 million between 2025 and 2028, covering over 2,600 km of new underground power lines and more than 1,100 new or modernised substations. Global Trade Alert logs the financing as a "red" state-loan intervention on the grounds that EIB funding to a regional grid operator constitutes below-market state-linked support.