London, 20 December 2023.- The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Walloon Region signed a memorandum of understanding on the 18th of December. Elio Di Rupi, the Minister-President, Willy Borsus, the Vice-President and Minister for the Economy, Adrien Dolinont, the Budget Minister signed the agreement with EIB, represented by Kris Peeters, Vice President.
They seek to use the space technology sector to serve the region and position it as a sector leader in Europe. The MoU also enables the EIB to provide financing arrangements for projects promoted by the Walloon Region in the space sector.
“I am very pleased about this new cooperation agreement between the EIB and the Walloon Region, which will further strengthen this sector’s competitiveness for Wallonia. Space is a vector for economic growth and an extremely promising sector of the future,” said Elio Di Rupo, Minister-President of Wallonia. “For years, our region has been building deep expertise in this area. As part of its recovery plan, the Walloon government has approved financing for several projects to develop a space value chain in Wallonia, like designing double-sided solar panels for microsatellites in the field of Earth observation, or the project for integrated, intelligent actuation systems for reusable launch vehicles.”
Two themes have been prioritised under the agreement: Earth observation and reusable launch vehicles. These two areas are included in the Walloon Region’s recovery plan. Skywin, Wallonia’s aerospace cluster, has developed a roadmap for each of these themes.
Through this MoU, the EIB commits to discussing the investment and financing aspects of projects related to the Earth Observation 2025 roadmap and the Reusable Launchers 2025 roadmap. The Walloon Region will work to calibrate potential investment schemes to funding sources, and will discuss co-financing alternatives with the EIB.
