The European Commission and the European Investment Fund of the European Investment Bank (EIB) launched, on Tuesday 4 February, the €75 million BlueInvest Fund.
At the BlueInvest Day conference in Brussels, EIB Vice-President Emma Navarro and Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, launched an investment fund for the blue economy.
The BlueInvest Fund will be managed by the EIB's European Investment Fund and will provide financing to underlying equity funds that strategically target the innovative blue economy. This sector can play an important role in the transformation process to a carbon-neutral economy by 2050, one of the objectives of the European Green Deal. The new programme is backed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the financial pillar of the Investment Plan for Europe.
The blue economy includes economic activities related to the oceans, seas and coasts (renewable energy, sustainable seafood, blue biotechnology, maritime IT, etc.)
The Fund of the new programme is complemented by the European Commission's BlueInvest platform. Through the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), the Commission is financing a €40 million grant scheme to help blue economy SMEs develop and market new products. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)