• H2020
• Industrial Leadership
• SMEs

Small businesses in Bulgaria are set to benefit from easier access to loans aiding competitiveness following the adoption of a €102m scheme adopted by the European Commission.

The financing will be drawn from the European Regional Development Fund and benefits SMEs through increased access to finance. It’s anticipated that investments under the programme, in the form of bank guarantees, are expected to generate between €400m and €600m in fresh loans for small businesses, thanks to the leverage effect of private investment.

The scheme is part of a broader initiative of the Commission to encourage member states to double their use of financial instruments in the context of European Structural and Investment Fund in 2014-2020, in line with the objectives of the Investment Plan for Europe.

European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, said: “The SME initiative adopted today in Bulgaria will give a boost to start-ups and small businesses from Sofia to Varna and everywhere in between. We want member states to use EU funds in new and creative ways, and this is exactly what Bulgaria is doing.”

Corina Creţu, European Regional Policy Commissioner, added that Bulgaria was “now in the leading group of EU countries benefitting from this innovating tool” and that “small businesses are the engines of growth and job creation in Europe”. She also described increasing access to finance as “crucial” due to it being “the lifeblood of entrepreneurship”.

Bulgaria is the third EU country after Spain and Malta to adopt such an investment programme. The SME Initiative is a joint financial instrument of the Commission, the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund. The programme sees an innovative change in the use of EU funds, combining them with the EU central budget, for example Horizon 2020, and EIB Group funds and guarantees.

Bulgarian SMEs should benefit from the first loans under this programme in early 2016.