Spain: EIB and ICF sign €50 million loan to strengthen social infrastructure in Catalonia

This article is published in association with European Investment Bank.

• The agreement will finance the construction and refurbishment of care homes, day centres and assisted living facilities for vulnerable groups, creating 7 500 care places.
• The Institut Català de Finances (ICF) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have finalised the second and final tranche of a total €150 million loan to promote investment in social infrastructure.
• The EIB loan is backed by InvestEU, an EU programme designed to mobilise public and private sector investment to support EU public policy goals.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Institut Català de Finances (ICF), the public development bank of the Government of Catalonia, have signed a €50 million loan to strengthen social infrastructure in Catalonia.

The agreement will support the construction, acquisition and refurbishment of care homes, day centres and assisted living facilities for older people, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups across Catalonia. The project will create around 7 500 care places and help ease the burden of unpaid care work, which falls mainly on women. The financing represents the second and final tranche of a total €150 million loan. The first tranche, amounting to €100 million, was signed in May 2025.

The two institutions approved the agreement at a meeting attended by the President of the EIB Group, Nadia Calviño; the Government of Catalonia’s Minister for Economy and Finance, Alícia Romero, and Minister for Social Rights and Inclusion, Mònica Martínez Bravo; the Chief Executive Officer of ICF, Vanessa Servera; the EIB Director of Equity, Growth Capital and Project Finance, Alessandro Izzo; and representatives of social sector organisations.

“The agreement between the EIB and ICF reflects our shared commitment to people’s social well-being. This new tranche of financing will help deliver essential infrastructure such as care homes, day centres and assisted living facilities, improving the quality of life of older people, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups,” said Alessandro Izzo, Director of Equity, Growth Capital and Project Finance at the EIB.

“At ICF, we will ensure that EIB funding translates directly into the expansion and modernisation of Catalonia’s social infrastructure. The agreement signed today will help us deliver more and better care places across the region, ensuring high‑quality care services,” said Chief Executive Officer of ICF Vanessa Servera.

The agreement with the EIB will enable ICF, through its ICF Equipaments Socials loans, to finance non‑profit social organisations, foundations, local authorities and public and private companies, driving investment in social infrastructure projects across Catalonia. All projects financed must comply with EU sustainable building standards, in particular the requirements for nearly zero energy buildings.

The operation contributes to the EIB Group’s strategic priority of strengthening social infrastructure in Europe. This is one of the eight priorities set out in its Strategic Roadmap for 2024‑2027.

The EIB loan is guaranteed by InvestEU, the flagship EU programme to mobilise over €372 billion of additional public and private sector investment to support EU policy goals from 2021 to 2027.

Background information

EIB Group

The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group is the financing arm of the European Union, owned by the 27 Member States, and one of the largest multilateral development banks in the world. In 2025, the EIB Group signed €100 billion of new financing and advisory services for over 870 high-impact projects in eight core priorities that support EU policy objectives: climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, territorial cohesion, agriculture and bioeconomy, social infrastructure, strong global partnerships and the savings and investments union. Beyond long-term loans for large infrastructure, the EIB Group crowds in private investment for high-risk innovative projects and businesses, with a growing role in Europe’s markets for venture debt, venture capital, guarantees and securitisations.

In 2025, the EIB Group completed financing and investment operations in Spain totalling around €11 billion, which came alongside an additional €2.9 billion under the Regional Resilience Fund (NextGenerationEU loans).

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is the subsidiary of the EIB Group specialised in providing guarantees and equity to improve access to finance for small and medium-sized businesses and startups across Europe. Acting as an anchor investor, through its extensive network of partnering banks and investment funds, the EIF mobilises private investment and nurtures the ecosystem of venture capital funds to support innovative European entrepreneurs.

In 2023, the EIF together with six Member States (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands) launched the European Tech Champions Initiative, a fund of funds to scale up innovative startups. This initiative has already enabled the creation of 13 European venture capital mega funds and scaled up 38 companies, including 11 unicorns (with more than €1 billion in capital).

Photos of the EIB Group’s spokespeople and headquarters, logo files and video B-roll for media use are available here.

InvestEU

The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It also helps mobilise private investment for EU strategic priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. The InvestEU programme brings together under one roof the multitude of EU financial instruments previously available to support investment in the Member States, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is implemented through financial partners that invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.