18 May 2010: Jose Manual Barroso, President of the European Commission, launched the Latin America Investment Facility (LAIF), on the side lines of the VI EU-Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Summit of Heads of State and Government Summit, which met in Madrid, Spain, on 18 May 2010.

LAIF is a financing mechanism aiming at mixing grants from the European Commission (EC) and other donors, with loans of multilateral or bilateral financing institutions and regional banks to pursue three interconnected and mutually reinforcing strategic objectives: improve interconnectivity between and within Latin American countries, including energy efficiency, renewable energy and transport; increase environmental protection and better control climate change impacts; and promote equitable and sustainable socioeconomic development through the improvement of the social services infrastructure and support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The EC has dedicated €125 million of grants to LAIF up to 2013, which could generate investments well in excess of €3 billion. [Latin America Investment Facility] [EU-LAC Summit] [EU Press Release]