Brussels, 17/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 17 March in Paris, the European Union and France signed an unprecedented social financing agreement, as part of the Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) programme. This financing includes €33 million to help more than 300 micro and social enterprises.
Marianne Thyssen, commissioner for employment, social affairs, skills and labour mobility, said, “This agreement marks a key milestone in European Union financing for social entrepreneurship. In addition to our support for micro-borrowers, these EaSI Guarantees will help more than 300 social enterprises to take root and grow, thereby fostering job creation and social inclusion”.
The agreement was signed between the European Investment Fund (EIF) and Société financière de la NEF (la NEF). It will focus on micro and social enterprises, whose main objective is social improvement and not the maximisation of profits to their private owners or shareholders. These will include fair trade producers, organic farmers and micro-lenders in the renewable energy sector. These companies often experience difficulties in accessing loans from ordinary banking sources.
This agreement was approved as part of the EaSI programme for the 2014-20 period and has an envelope of €919,469,000 (including €193 million for accessing micro-financing and social entrepreneurship). The programme aims to facilitate access to micro-financing, including micro-loans (loans of up to €25,000, particularly for disadvantaged groups of people and micro enterprises) and support for social enterprises (loans of up to €500,000 per social enterprise, on the condition that their annual turnover is less than €30 million).
Through this agreement between the EIF and the NEF, entrepreneurs that submit a demand for credit from the NEF will benefit from reduced rates and will not have to provide guarantees. The EIF will not provide direct support to companies but will help provide this facility by way of local financial intermediaries, such as micro-financing institutions, social finance and guarantees, as well as EU28 banks and other countries participating in the programme.
EIF Director-General, Pier Luigi Gilibert, said that he hoped, “to sign other deals for social entrepreneurship in the next few months”. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)
= = = = = = = = = = = = =