Romania's finance ministry said on Friday it has received the government's approval to sign two loan agreements worth a total 480 million euro ($585 million) with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to co-finance the construction of two regional hospitals - in Craiova and Cluj.

The total net cost of the two projects is 961 million euro, the finance ministry said in a statement.

Co-financing for the projects will come from the state budget and non-reimbursable funds, while the implementation will be ensured by the health ministry.

The finance ministry expects to sign the loan agreements with the EIB by the end of this year.

In April, the EIB announced that it has agreed to lend 250 million euro to Romania for the construction of a regional emergency hospital in the city of Iasi.

The construction of three of total eight planned new regional hospitals, namely in Iasi, Cluj-Napoca and Craiova, has already been started by the health ministry and will be financed from non-reimbursable European funds. The total estimated cost of these investments is approximately 1.5 billion euro, the finance ministry said.

In mid-2019, the EIB signed additional Project Advisory Support Service Agreements (PASSAs) worth 20 million euro with Romanian authorities for technical assistance for the construction of the three regional emergency hospitals.

($= 0.8208 euro)