"Growth and Environment" loan guarantee pilot programme

With the objective of facilitating access to loans for environmental investments by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the European Commission, in partnership with the European Investment Fund, has launched the "Growth and Environment" pilot programme.

With support from the European Parliament, Commissioners Yves-Thibault de Silguy, responsible for economic, monetary and financial affairs, Ritt Bjerregaard, responsible for the environment, and Christos Papoutsis, responsible for SMEs, have created this loan guarantee programme for investments producing significant environmental benefits. It will allow the European Investment Fund (EIF) to offer, at its own risk, partial guarantees for loans amounting to up to ECU 1.8 billion for small enterprises with up to 100 employees, with priority access for those with fewer than 50 employees.

The "Growth and Environment" loan guarantee scheme is one of the measures undertaken in the context of the White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment. Its objective is to encourage environmental investment by SMEs in the Union. The programme is a pilot programme. At the end of the pilot phase an evaluation as regards the overall volume of SME investments achieved and the nature of environmental investments achieved will be carried out. This evaluation will help to decide as to whether and how the scheme could be made permanent.

The scheme is managed on behalf of the European Community by the European Investment Fund (EIF). For SME guarantees in general and for the "Growth and Environment" scheme in particular, the EIF delegates responsibility for the approval and administration of individual loans to intermediary financial institutions in the Member States. So far, the EIF has signed intermediary contracts with 13 financial institutions in nine Member States of the European Union and discussions are continuing with other institutions in order to achieve a complete network in all 15 Member States.

The selection of borrowers is the responsibility of the participating intermediary banks or guarantee funds, who carry out the financial evaluation of the investments according to their normal credit procedures. Interested companies should approach one of the intermediary financial institutions of the programme for more details:

- Bank Austria (Austria);
- Kredietbank (Belgium);
- Merkur (Denmark);
- Kera, Finnish Guarantee Board (Finland);
- Crédit Lyonnais, Banque Populaire du Haut-Rhin (France);
- Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (Germany);
- Banca Popolare di Verona, Finlombarda/Cariplo/Mediocredito (Italy);
- Föreningsbanken (Sweden);
- Barclays Bank (United Kingdom).