News
France: CEB approves € 200 million loan to support inclusive education infrastructure in Seine-Saint-Denis
24 March 2020
PARIS – The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) has approved a € 200 million loan to support the Département de la Seine-Saint-Denis in the implementation of its multi-annual investment plan for secondary education infrastructure (Plan pluriannuel d’investissement Collèges 2025).
Located north of Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis has a population exposed to various vulnerabilities. 29% of its residents live below the poverty line and nearly 40% reside in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Almost 23% of all children live in single-parent families and 40% of them have a primary caretaker with no education. Moreover, about 44% of secondary school pupils have parents of immigrant background.
As its population is facing severe economic, family, and cultural difficulties, school-age children in Seine-Saint-Denis present the highest risk of school failure. Educational policy is thus a major priority for the Department, focusing in particular on facilitating the social and future professional integration of secondary school pupils.
The project financed by the CEB responds to the Department’s ongoing efforts to upgrade its secondary education, and builds on a previous, successfully completed CEB loan of € 200 million approved in 2014. Specifically, the project provides for the construction, renovation, maintenance and upgrading of 68 state colleges, a boarding school, two school gyms, a central kitchen, and various equipments, including IT tools. These investments will provide better learning and working conditions for pupils and the educational community at large and improve the safety and accessibility of these facilities for persons with disabilities.
In addition, the construction and renovation works to be carried out will comply with French “high environmental quality standards” and a large number of the buildings to be rehabilitated will also be retrofitted so as to increase their energy efficiency. It is estimated that the energy consumption of the buildings to be rehabilitated will decrease by 25%.
CEB Governor Rolf Wenzel said: “Investments in education infrastructure have always been a priority for the CEB and with good reason, given the importance of the education sector when it comes to strengthening social cohesion. In addition to providing to date financing worth € 7 billion in this sector, the Bank has been working with its partners to identify innovative ways of connecting investments in education infrastructure with learning outcomes and ensuring the environmental sustainability of these investments. We are pleased to continue working with the Department of Seine-Saint-Denis and to assist in the development of more inclusive, innovative, and climate-resilient learning environments for the benefit of the most vulnerable.”
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France is a founding
member of the CEB. Since 1956, the Bank has been instrumental in providing close
to € 3 billion in financing for a wide range of social investments, from public
infrastructure improvements and state-of-the-art research facilities to support
for MSMEs. France is also a contributor of grant resources to the CEB. The French
government contributed € 3 million to the CEB’s Migrant and Refugee Fund (MRF),
a grant-based facility set up in October 2015 to help its member states tackle
the migrant and refugee crisis.
Set up in 1956, the CEB (Council of Europe Development Bank) has 41 member states. Twenty-two Central, Eastern and South Eastern European countries, forming the Bank's target countries, are listed among the member states. As a major instrument of the policy of solidarity in Europe, the Bank finances social projects by making available resources raised in conditions reflecting the quality of its rating (AA+ with Fitch Ratings, outlook positive, AAA with Standard & Poor's, outlook stable and Aa1 with Moody's, outlook stable). It thus grants loans to its member states, and to financial institutions and local authorities in its member states for the financing of projects in the social sector, in accordance with its Articles of Agreement.