The Commission provides, through the Neighbourhood Investment Facility, grant support for lending operations of European Development Finance institutions in these countries. Out of the €700 million that the Commission intends to allocate to the NIF for the period 2007-2013, €170 million have now been made available for the financing of eligible projects (€50 million approved in 2007, €50 million in 2008 and an additional €70 million this year).

Officially launched in May 2008, the NIF was created under the aegis of Commissioner Mrs Ferrero-Waldner in order to strengthen Community and Member States' grant support for lending operations carried out by European multilateral and bilateral development finance institutions in European Neighbour Policy partner countries.

The 15 projects approved by NIF in its first year of operation have a total grant contribution of €71 million. In addition to improvement of basic infrastructures the NIF also provided support to some major investments in the environment sector, directly or indirectly tackling common environmental challenges.

NIF operations focus on countries which have already signed an ENP Action Plan with the EU i.e. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Lebanon, Republic of Moldova, Morocco, the Palestinian Occupied Territories, Tunisia and Ukraine . On a case by case basis other neighbouring countries may also benefit from NIF grant support, in particular in case of projects of cross border or regional nature to which the EU attaches particular interest.