Moedas and Dombrovskis open Innovative Enterprise Week

Two leading EU politicians have opened the first day of Innovative Enterprise Week in the Latvian capital Riga.

Opening the conference, Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commission Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue, delivered a speech on the role of the eurozone in supporting innovation. Meanwhile, Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, announced the launch of four new initiatives that will provide new financing and support for innovative start-ups in co-operation with the European Investment Fund (EIF) and European Investment Bank (EIB).

The new schemes will provide €100m for innovation in the fields of health and energy respectively, and aim to generate up to €1.6bn in venture funding for innovative SMEs. They will expand the range of existing tools under the InnovFin programme that the EIF already offers together with the European Commission and EIB.

Welcoming the launch of the new tools, Moedas said: “We’re taking another step to help businesses invest in innovation and make them attractive to private investors. With backing from Horizon 2020, these new tools will focus on important challenges like health and energy innovation, provide new funding for SMEs, and set up an advisory facility for innovative companies. This will help kick-start hundreds of new businesses across Europe, benefitting our society and economy.”

The three-day event, which runs until 17 June 2015, is the first Innovative Enterprise Week to be held and focuses on access to finance for research and innovation as well as SMEs.