The European Investment Fund (EIF) and The Danish Growth Fund (Vækstfonden) have signed a COSME agreement in Denmark, guaranteed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the heart of the Investment Plan for Europe.

The COSME EFSI guarantee agreement will allow Vækstfonden to support DKK 180 million (ca. EUR 24m) of loans to agricultural Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Denmark over the next three years. The loans will be provided as a result of a guarantee from EIF under the COSME programme with financial backing from the European Commission. The agreement will make it possible for Vækstfonden to support additional attractive loans to around 75 young farmers wishing to acquire a farm.

Commenting on the signature, EIF Chief Executive, Pier Luigi Gilibert said: “EIF is pleased to be signing a guarantee agreement with Vækstfonden for the benefit of agricultural SMEs in Denmark. This COSME EFSI guarantee will play an important role in supporting rural communities and contribute to the creation of jobs and growth in Denmark”.

European Commissioner for Agriculture, Phil Hogan, said: "Agriculture is the heartbeat of rural areas. To ensure the continued viability of rural Europe, we need to invest in our farmers. Thanks to the Investment Plan for Europe, small agri businesses across Denmark will now be able to grow and expand. This is a concrete example of the EU delivering for citizens in rural areas and I hope to see more such EFSI agreements in the near future."

About the EIF

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank group. Its central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them to access finance. EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments which specifically target this market segment. In this role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment. More information on EIF's work under the EFSI is available here.

About The Danish Growth Fund (Vækstfonden)

The Danish Growth Fund is a state investment fund that contributes to the creation of new companies by providing capital and expertise. Since 1992, The Danish Growth Fund has together with private investors co-financed growth in more than 6,000 Danish companies with a total commitment of more than DKK 17 billion. The Danish Growth Fund invests equity and provides loans and guarantees for small as well as medium-sized enterprises in collaboration with private partners and Danish financial institutions. See more here http://www.vf.dk/saadan-goer-vi/vaekstkaution.aspx.

About COSME

COSME is the EU programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) running from 2014 to 2020 with a total budget of EUR 2.3 billion. At least 60% of the programme will be devoted to easing access to finance for SMEs in Europe, with two financial instruments. The COSME Loan Guarantee Facility supports guarantees and counter-guarantees to financial institutions to help them provide more loans and lease finance to SMEs. This facility also includes securitisation of SME debt finance portfolios. The COSME programme also invests through the COSME Equity Facility for Growth in equity funds that provide risk capital to SMEs mainly in the expansion and growth stages. The COSME programme builds on the success of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) (2007-2013) which helped to mobilise almost EUR 21 billion of loans and EUR 3 billion of venture capital to over 383,000 SMEs in Europe.

Businesses can contact selected financial institutions in their country to access EU financing: http://www.access2finance.eu/

About the Investment Plan for Europe

The Investment Plan for Europe focuses on strengthening European investments to create jobs and growth. It does so by making smarter use of new and existing financial resources, removing obstacles to investment, providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects. The Investment Plan is already showing results. The European Investment Bank (EIB) estimates that the projects and agreements approved for financing under the EFSI so far (by 12 October 2016) are expected to mobilise more than EUR 138 billion in total investments across 27 Member States and to support almost 290,000 SMEs.

Building on this success, the European Commission on 14 September 2016 proposed extending the EFSI by increasing its firepower and duration as well as reinforcing its strengths. Find the latest EFSI figures including a break-down by sector and by country here. For more information see the FAQs.

Press contacts:

EIF: David Yormesor
Tel.: +352 42 66 88 346, e-mail: d.yormesor@eif.org

The Danish Growth Fund (Vækstfonden): Peter Bruun
Tel. +45 40 81 35 46, e-mail: pbr@vf.dk

European Commission: Siobhán Millbright
Tel.: +32 2295 7361, e-mail siobhan.millbright@ec.europa.eu

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