Green light for EFSI SME financing before the summer

Following a decision by the European Investment Bank (EIB), SMEs in Europe should be able to benefit from the first funds from the new European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) before the summer.

The landmark decision was taken today by the EIB Board of Governors and will allow for the pre-financing of SME projects linked to the Investment Plan for Europe before the summer. The governing board is composed of ministers designated by each of the 28 EU member states, usually ministers of finance.

Jyrki Katainen, the European Commission Vice-President, responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness and steering the Investment Plan´s implementation, participated in the EIB Board of Governors meeting where the decision was taken. Welcoming the decision, he said: “This is a great day for European small businesses. This news from the EIB means that by the summer, cash-starved SMEs and innovative mid-caps across Europe could be benefitting from an injection of badly needed capital. We have said that we want to help get Europe investing again, and today we are doing exactly that.”

The money can be made available to SMEs by the European Investment Fund (EIF), part of the EIB-Group, which will cover the risk of transactions with intermediaries providing additional finance to SMEs and small mid-caps until the main EFSI is in place. It is anticipated that EFSI will be up and running by September 2015; infrastructure projects may also benefit from similar pre-financing arrangements before EFSI is fully set up, but later than SMEs.