We are pleased to introduce Sladjana Ćosić, Head of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group in Croatia and new member of the XEnergy Advisory Board! Her involvement in XEnergy will be instrumental in helping us focus more on green finance issues and improve cooperation with European institutions, especially the EIB.
“The EIB is an investment bank, but also a climate bank and a pioneer in the placement of green bonds. Its aim is to finance projects that support the EU’s objectives. In addition to direct financing, the EIB in Croatia also offers financing through HBOR or other commercial banks, offers the possibility of financing riskier projects, project financing and guarantees and can be combined with co-financing from European funds. In addition, she emphasised, the EIB offers free advisory services. Today we have the seal of approval and when the EIB says something is green, it really is green,” said Sladjana Ćosić. Since 1977, the EIB has provided almost EUR 8 billion to support all major sectors of the Croatian economy.
Our new Advisory Board member has worked at the EIB for many years and is currently responsible, among other things, for representing and promoting the EIB Group and its activities and interests among a broad network of state, regional and local stakeholders in the country. She has more than 15 years of operational experience in financing private and public sector projects, particularly with regard to sustainability aspects, in various sectors and regions, including the European Union, the Western Balkans, Africa, South and East Asia and the Middle East. In her previous role at the EIB, she focused on issues related to sustainable finance, ESG standards and practises, just transition and also worked as an expert on the development of new European sustainability reporting standards for the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) and on the development of a social taxonomy for the European Commission’s Sustainable Finance Platform.
Prior to her ten years at the EIB, she worked at the World Bank headquarters, where she focused on sustainable development projects in the East Asia and Pacific region. Prior to that, she worked for the International Migration Policy Centre in Vienna in the field of migration. He holds two master’s degrees from the University of Vienna and Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, in the fields of social sciences, international relations and economics.
