EBRD approves EUR 72.25 million loan for Belgrade’s Vinča landfill project

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved a EUR 72.25 million loan for the Belgrade’s Vinča landfill project, while arranging a syndicated loan of EUR 35 million for the account of participants. The Bank will also mobilize EUR 21 million in concessional finance funded by TaiwanICDF.

The EBRD financing will be part of a wider package for the Vinča landfill project including International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank (OeEB) with loans of up to EUR 72.25 million and EUR 35 million, respectively, the EBRD said in a press release.

The total investment will be mobilized by Beo Čista Energija Ltd., a special purpose vehicle formed by SUEZ, Itochu and Marguerite Fund

The total investment will be mobilized by Beo Čista Energija Ltd., a special purpose vehicle owned by the global utility company SUEZ, the Japanese conglomerate Itochu and Marguerite Fund, a pan-European equity fund investing in renewables, energy, and transport. The companies are in a 25-year public-private partnership (PPP) with the City of Belgrade forged in 2017 for the first large-scale environmental infrastructure PPP investment in the Western Balkans region.

The investment includes the construction of an energy-from-waste facility, a facility for construction and demolition waste (CDW), the remediation, closing and aftercare of the existing landfill, and the construction of a new EU-compliant landfill, the EBRD said.

The new landfill will replace the existing landfill in Vinča, a suburb of Belgrade, which is unsanitary and reaching maximum capacity.

In July, a public consultation on two environmental impact studies conducted for the Belgrade waste management project – specifically the energy-to-waste facility to incinerate municipal waste and use landfill gas and a new landfill – has shown that there is still a lack of information concerning the project, resulting in public mistrust.

A week earlier, Beo Čista Energija and public heating utility Beogradske Elektrane signed a 25-year contract on the purchase of heat from the Vinča waste-to-energy facility.