Thomas Barrett | Director, New Products and Special Transactions Department, ...
EUROPEAN FUND FOR STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS
1. EU INVESTMENT PLAN
EUROPEAN FUND FOR STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS
EUROPEAN INVESTMENT ADVISORY HUB
EUROPEAN INVESTMENT PROJECT PORTAL
Kristina Gogić, mag.iur./LLM
2. EU INVESTMENT PLAN
• Since 2007. the level of investment in EU has
dropped of by about 15% (Italy 25%, Portugal 36%, Spain
38%, Ireland 39%, Greece 64%)1*
• The EU Investment plan consists of three stands:
- mobilizing finance for investment without creating new
public debt 2*
- making finance reach the real economy 3*
- improved investment environment 4*
• The stakeholders: MS, NPBs, regional authorities,
private investors
3. EUROPEAN FUND FOR STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS
EFSI
• In July 2015. entered into force The Regulation (EU)
2015/1017 of the EP and of the Council on the EFSI, the
EIAH and the EIPP and amending Regulations (EU) No
1291/2013 and (EU) No 1316/2013
• The role of the EFSI: to ensure enhanced risk-bearing
capacity and mobilize extra investments, essencially from
private sources, but also from public sources in specific
sectors and areas
• The EFSI supports long term investment projects and
small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and mid cap
companies 1*
4. EFSI financing
• Who can apply for EFSI financing?
- Entities of all sizes, including utilities, special purpose
vehicles or project companies, small and medium sized
enterprises (with up to 250 employees) and midcaps
(with up to 3000 employees);
- Public sector entities;
- NPBs or other banks to deliver intermediated lending;
- Funds and any other form of collective investment
vehicles;
- Bespoke investment platforms 1*,2*,3*,4*
5. EUROPEAN INVESTMENT ADVISORY HUB
• The EIAH is one of the windows of the Investment Plan
for Europe, aims to:
- enhance the environment for investment by addressing
the main financial and non-financial obstacles;
- strengthen support for project development and
preparation across the Union;
• The Hub:
- builds on the expertise of the EC, the EIB Group, NPI
and MS Managing Authorities;
- supports projects which may be eligible for
financing by the EIB (either under EFSI or otherwise)
but the Hub isn’t limited to EIB financed projects.
6. EIAH
• The EIAH consists of three complementary
components:
- A single point of entry in a wide range of advisory and
technical initiatives for public and private beneficiaries,
provided by high-level experts;
- A cooperation platform to leverage, exchange and
disseminate expertise among the EIAH partner institutions
and beyond;
- An investment to assess and address a new needs by
reinforcing or extending existing advisory services or creating
a new areas as demand arises 1*2*
7. EIAH
• Advisory programmes which can be acccessed via
the Hub:
1. JASPERS (Joint Assisstance to Support Projects in European
Regions) provides MS with support to prepare projects to be
co-financed by EU structural Funds; 1*
2. ELENA (European Local Energy Assistance) programme
provides investment preparation support related to energy
efficiency and renewable energy across the 28 EU MS with
the aim of generating bankable investments that can attract
financing from commercial banks or other financial
institutions (including the EIB);
8. EIAH
3. EPEC (European PPP Expertise Centre);
- the EIB hosts a network-based Expertise Centre dedicated to
Public Private Partnerships (PPPs);
- EPEC’s work support and strengthens the public sector’s ability to
deliver better PPP’s;
- it does this through a mix of network activities, policy advice and
upstream project development support;
- in delivering its work the EPEC team collaborates closely with its
network of MS, EIB services and the EC;
- EPEC contributes across a wide range of PPP issues such as
disseminating newmarket developments in PPP’s providing advice
around the effective use of EU funds through blending grants with
PPP’s and improving institutional arrangements to deliver PPP’s.1+
9. EIAH
Access to finance
• The advisory programmes accessible via the Hub support
public authorities, project promoters and private
companies to improve the overall conditions for
financing. This is done in a two ways:
- Support to investment projects (particulary in the innovation
space) providing assistance to companies for their fund-
raising activities which can enhance access to different
funding opportunities;
- Assistance to procuring authorities in developing
infrastructure programmes to attract private sector
participation and funding through a wide range of PPPs,
developed in line with national priorities
10. EIAH
Access to finance
• Research&Innovation (R&I); InnovFin Advisory
- Many R&I projects face difficulties in securing finance,
despite being fundamentally good projects;
InnovFin Advisory:
- support helps these projects and companies make them the most out of
their potential;
- guides its clients on how to structure their R&I projects in order to
improve their access to finance; 1*
- provides advice to improve investment conditions through activities
which are not project-specific; 2*
InnovFin Advisory was set up as a joint EIB-EC initiative under
Horizon 2020. – assist eligible public and private counterparts
to improve the bankability and investment-readiness of large,
complex, innovative projects that need substantial long-term investments
11. EIAH
Access to finance
• As a part of InnovFin programme under Horizon 2020,
InnovFin Advisory provides financial advice through two of
activities:
- Project advice delivered via InnovFin Advisory helps the
management of private or public companies and Joint
Ventures to raise funds to finance investments in R&I
activities;
- Horizontal activities to improve the overall framework
conditions for innovation projects, assessing the suitability
of the current financial tools and proposing new ones.
12. EUROPEAN INVESTMENT PROJECT PORTAL
(EIPP)
• EIPP is a brand new web portal; the meeting place for project
promoters (public or private) and investors;
• Priorities of this Portal as a part of Investment Plan for Europe
initiative are:
- to create more jobs accross the EU;
- to promote econimic growth;
- to mobilise investment
• If you are project promoter based in the EU and want to reach
potential investors wordwide you can register your project to
EIPP via its Project Form and boost its visibility to a large
network of international investors 1*,2*,3*
13. EIPP
• Registration at this Portal doesn’t mean that someone
will invest in your project; EIPP is facilitator 1*
• Submission to the EIPP will not be treated as
application for financing under the EFSI or other
EU/EIB instruments 2*
• If you are an investor looking for investment
opportunities in areas such as transport, renewable
ebergy, healthcare, energy efficiency, financing SMEs
or broad band infrastructure; the EIPP will offer you a
broad of viable projects
14. EIPP
• Project eligibility:
- Have a total cost of at least 10 million €;
- Fall under one of the pre-determined high-economic-
value-added sectors (a coice of up two sectors per project is available
to the promoters)
- Be expected to start within three years of submission;
- Be promoted by a public or private legal entitiy established
in an EU country;
- Be compatible with all applicable EU and national laws 1*
15. EIPP
• Sectors covered:
1. Knowledge and digital economy (research, development, innovation,
ICT infrastructure, including broadband, other digital, including
content and service)
2. Energy Union (renewable energy production, energy efficinecy,
conventional energy production, electricity infrastructure)
3. Transport (trans-european network, urban mobility projects...etc.)
4. Social structure and other (human capital, education and training,
health, cultural and creative industries, tourism...etc.)
5. Resources and environmental (natural resources, agricultural and
rural development, forestry and bio-economy, climate change...etc)
6. Financing SMEs and Mid-caps
16. Thank you on your attention!
e-mail: gogic.kristina@hotmail.com
Notas do Editor
1* This investment gap points to a market failure and a reduced capacity of investors to take a risk
2* ambition is to mobilize at least EUR 315 billion in additional public and private investment into the real economy
3* supporting projects and investments in key areas such as infrastructure, education, research and innovation
4* predictability and quality of regulation, quality of national expenditure, tax systems and public administration, new sources of long-term financing for the economy, removing non financial, regulatory barriers in key sectors within Single Market. The Single Market is Europe’s greatest structural reform achievement
1* The EFSI is established with a guarantee of 16 billion €, which is created under the EU budget to support the Fund. The EIB committed 5 billion €, MS directly or through their NPBs or similar bodies, have the opportunity to contribute to the Fund in the form of capital. Private investors can also join at the level of the Fund.
1* To benefit from EFSI support need to go through the standard EIB due diligence as well as an assessment by the EFSI Investment Committee to decide whether they are eligible for backing under the EU guarantee
2* The project needs to be: economically and technically sound; match the eligible sector; contributing to EU objectives and to sustainable growth and employment; mature enough to be bankable; priced in a manner commensurate with the risk taken
3* Project promoters should follow the usual EIB loan application procedures. SMEs and Midcaps interested in EFSI transaction via the EIF should refer to information on EIF financial intermediaries.
4* Financial institutions offering financial products to smaller business seeking to apply for EFSI resources should refer to the EIF directly.
1* The Hub is partnership between the EIB and EC. Both institutions contribute financially to the initiative. The EIB is responsible for the management of the Hub which is established within the Bank.
2* The Advisory Hub also coordinates a network of NPI and Managing Authorities. The Hub contributes to developing a solid pipeline of sound and bankable projects for Europe. The Hub assists MS and other promoters to identify investment needs and to prioritise, prepare and structure projects in EU. Assistance may also be delivered during project implementation phase to ensure successful delivery.
1* Accross the EU, JASPERS provides assistance for all stages of the project cycle, from the initial identification of the project through to the decision to provide EU grant assisstance. From 2015. JASPERS activities have been expanded to all MS and extended in scope to include support for a wider range of services including capacity building.
1* More about other sector-related and geographically focused advisory programmes which support project identification, preparation and implementation you can find on the web site of EIB (www.eib.org)
1* The service helps them on capitalise on their strong points and adjust elements such as their business model, governance, funding sources and financing structure to improve their access to finance. In the long run, this increases their chances of being implemented.
2* This includes things such as developing a business case for new financing mechanisms and preparing studies on increasing the effectiveness of financial instruments to address specific R&I needs.
1* EIPP Project Form you can fill on line and after submitting a reduced fee of 100€ will be charged to private project promoters after their project forms have been confirmed complete and ready for processing (later will be 250€). Public sector project promoters are exempt from the project submission fee.
2* You can submit forms in one of the 24 EU official languages. The EC will provide and publish a free translation into English, for information purpose. The original language version of the project form will be authentic version of the project on the EIPP.
3* The project information will be published after a screening of its eligibility by the EC.
1* Submitting a project doesn’t impose any legal obligations, in the context of the EIPP, on the person submitting the project;
2* If you would like to submit your project to the EIB to apply for EFSI financing you can visit web site of the EIB: www.eib.org/efsi
1* Publication of the project can be denied on legal, reputational or other grounds.
