Juncker Plan: Further 800M euro for innovative SMEs in 11 countries, including Bulgaria
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and ProCredit Group are providing an additional 800 million euro to innovative small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the core element of the Investment Plan for Europe, or “Juncker Plan”, and the InnovFin SME Guarantee Facility, the European Commission said on July 15.
The additional sum brings a total of 1.62 billion euro to companies in the 11 countries.
The financing will target companies using new technologies and producing new products in one of the 11 countries where the facility is available (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Moldova, the Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine).
To date, agreements with ProCredit have already supported around 2000 innovative SMEs, predominantly in the manufacturing and wholesale and retail trade, and many more will be financed in the coming years, the media statement said.
These agreements were signed under the European Commission’s InnovFin initiative, backed by the EU’s research and innovation programme Horizon 2020. The InnovFin initiative enables participating banks to provide loans to innovative companies with the support of a guarantee provided by the EIF.
The agreements signed in EU member state countries were made possible by the support of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). The EFSI is the central pillar of the European Commission’s Investment Plan for Europe, the statement said.
(Photo: G Schouten de Jel)
