Luxembourg, 10/12/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 6 December, the European Investment Bank (EIB) decided to grant a €100 million loan to Sorin SpA. This financial assistance marks the beginning, in Italy, of the Risk Sharing Finance Facility (RSFF), a joint EIB/European Commission initiative aimed at increasing the resources available for projects in the fields of innovation and research.
The Sorin Group, of which Sorin SpA is the parent company, is the largest European company in the cardiovascular sector and a world leader in medical technologies for cardiac surgery, areas in which it is active at all levels (research, design, production and sales). The EIB loan is intended to finance Sorin's research and development (R&D) activities during the period 2007-2009.
The Risk Sharing Finance Facility, which comes under the EU's Seventh Research Framework Programme, will partly cover the financial risks borne by the Bank when financing these activities. The aim of the mechanism is to mobilise €10 billion in additional financing in favour of research, development and innovation (RDI) sectors on the basis of two allocations of €1 billion each, one from the EIB and one from the EU, under the 7th Framework Programme. Since the agreement on RSFF was signed on 5 June 2007 with the Commission, the EIB has already concluded contracts under this facility for a total of €359 million in Spain, Austria and Germany. The sectors concerned include solar and other forms of renewable energy, automotive research and biotechnology. (O.L.)