Brussels, 09/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 9 May, the European Commission announced that the German group ProCredit, which is active in the field of loans to SMEs, has signed an agreement with the European Investment Fund (EIF) allowing it to grant loans to Greek businesses over the next two years for total amount of €20 million.
This is the first agreement with the Hellenic Republic under the investment plan for Europe. This €20 million in loans, which is made possible due to guarantees provided by the EIS of €10 million, will principally target small and medium-sized enterprises active in research and innovation activities in connection with the programme Horizon 2020. “The agreement signed today will make it possible for the ProCredit group to offer innovative companies additional financing at favourable conditions”, the Commission states in its press release.
This announcement could not have come at a better time for the coalition government at the helm of the country, whose budgetary situation was examined on the same day by the finance ministers in the context of an extraordinary Eurogroup meeting (see other article).
According to the latest figures published by the European Commission on 14 April, some 165 financing agreements have so far benefited European SMEs to total amount of €3.4 billion; on top of 57 infrastructure projects which have received a public guarantee of €7.8 billion from the EIB (see EUROPE 11539).
However, the investment plan regularly comes in for criticism from certain regions and various members of the European Parliament, which feel that it prioritises projects in the European regions which are already the most well off, as the allocation of funding is based on performance criteria (see EUROPE 11539). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)