EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Funds, Latvia, Modern EU

There is a special European Commission’s Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI), which aims at contributing to the implementation of the EU-2020 strategy. The idea is to support high level employment, guarantee adequate social protection, as well as combating social exclusion, poverty while improving working conditions in the member states.

The central pillar of the EU’s investment plan is the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). It is to help use of liquidity held by the European financial institutions, corporations and individuals at a time when public resources are scarce.

The Commission works together with its strategic partner, the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group. The EFSI supports strategic investments in key areas such as infrastructure, energy efficiency and renewable energy, research and innovation, environment, agriculture, digital technology, education, health and social projects. It also helps small businesses to start up, to grow and to expand by providing risk finance.

The EFSI is an EU-budget guarantee providing the EIB Group with a first loss protection. This means that the EIB Group is able to provide financing to higher-risk projects than they normally would. An independent investment committee uses strict criteria to decide whether a project is eligible for EFSI support.

New EaSI’s guarantee agreement allows ALTUM to provide loans to 600 micro-entrepreneurs over the next 3 years across Latvia. See more in:

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&newsId=9175&furtherNews=yes&furtherNews=yes

About the EU’s strategic investment fund: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/priorities/jobs-growth-and-investment/investment-plan-europe-juncker-plan/european-fund-strategic-investments-efsi_en#abouttheefsi.

About European investment fund see:  

Under EaSI, EIF has been entrusted by the European Commission to manage the following financial instruments:

• EaSI Guarantee Instrument: to increase access to finance for social enterprises, micro-enterprises and  vulnerable groups; and

• EaSI Capacity Building Investments Window: to build up the institutional capacity of micro-credit and social finance providers. More on that in:

http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/microfinance/easi/index.htm

The readers can use other valuable information on EaSI in the European Commission’s websites:

- EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI); - Supporting entrepreneurs and the self-employed - Microfinance; - Supporting entrepreneurs and the self-employed - Social entrepreneurship; - Microfinance and Social Entrepreneurship axis of EaSI.

Supporting SMEs

Latvian micro-entrepreneurs will be able to benefit from loans at a reduced interest rate with lower collateral requirements under the EU supported programme; ALTUM in Latvia will primarily target start-ups and small businesses.

Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, Marianne Thyssen, underlined that with the help of EU funding, Latvian ALTUM will improve access to finance for about 600 micro-enterprises in Latvia, many of whom face difficulties in accessing credit from traditional banking sources.

According to the Commission, the new EaSI guarantee agreement will allow micro-entrepreneurs to benefit from loans with favourable conditions. This shows again that the European Commission, through the EaSI programme, tries to boost employment and get more people into jobs in the member states.

The EaSI Guarantee scheme was launched in June 2015 and is funded by the European Commission and managed by the European Investment Fund.

On EU’s guarantee in: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1084&langId=en

EIF will not provide direct financial support to enterprises but will implement the facility through local financial intermediaries, such as microfinance, social finance and guarantee institutions, as well as banks active across the EU states and additional countries that are participating in the EaSI programme.

These intermediaries will deal with interested parties directly to provide support under the EaSI Guarantee.

More on the European micro-finances

The Microfinance and Social Entrepreneurship (MF/SE) axis supports actions in two thematic sections: - microcredit and microloans for vulnerable groups and micro-enterprises; and -social entrepreneurship.

The support’s objectives will help to:

- Increase access to, and the availability of, microfinance for vulnerable groups who want to set up or develop their business and micro-enterprises.

- Build up the institutional capacity of microcredit providers; and

- Support the development of social enterprises, in particular by facilitating access to finance.

More in: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1084&langId=en

Already in 2018, about  96 mln EUR is available for interested microcredit providers and social enterprise through the EaSI Guarantee. The amounts will enable microcredit providers and social enterprise investors to reach out to entrepreneurs they would not have been able to finance otherwise for risk considerations. The Commission has selected the European Investment Fund as its entrusted entity to implement the EaSI Guarantee.

To apply for the EaSI Guarantee (direct or counter-guarantee), interested SMEs have to connect the EU’s website at: http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/microfinance/easi/index.htm.