The European Investment Bank (EIB) is investing €700 million in employment financing and climate innovation to make Europe more resilient to the corona crisis.
With this €700 million, the EIB expects to be able to guarantee an investment amount of €1,6 billion with national European banks. This money is a follow-up to an earlier investment round in 2018 of €400 million, aimed at climate policy innovations, environmental sustainability and employment.
The aim of this money is to enable financing for small and medium-sized private companies operating in the value chains of production and processing of food, biobased materials and bioenergy.
Climate and employment
The credit program will enable direct lending for investments ranging from a minimum of €15 million to a maximum of €200 million, with the EIB loan amount ranging from a minimum of €7,5 million to a maximum of €50 million per company.
Targeted investments should support environmental protection and natural resource efficiency, renewable energy, innovation, competitiveness and energy efficiency. At the same time, the program should also contribute to securing and creating jobs in rural areas.
Long term financing
EIB Vice President Andrew MacDowwel, responsible for bioeconomy, emphasizes the importance of long-term thinking at the start of the program in the midst of the corona crisis: “Since the coronavirus pandemic reached Europe, the EIB has been fully mobilized together with the European Commission to deploy a support plan for the hardest hit sectors, including those in the agri-food sector. (An amount of no less than €40 billion has been earmarked, mid-March-red). Nevertheless, the long-term financing with an emphasis on climate policy innovation, environmental sustainability and rural development continues. With this second financing, we provide an additional €700 million to continue to build and meet market demand.”
Example projects
The first €400 million of the loan for the agricultural program has already supported a dozen significant investment projects for European agriculture that have also strengthened rural communities, the EIB writes. Examples include a €50 million loan to dairy company Mlekpol, the largest in Poland, a €75 million loan to develop a digital purchasing platform for cooperative farmers in France and a project in Ireland, also representing a total loan of €75 million to an Irish company in cheeses such as cheddar and mozzarella.
European Commissioner content
European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski embraces the EIB investment programme: “The coronavirus pandemic is affecting every one of us and every sector. In this dramatic context, I warmly welcome this second step of the EIB's investment plan strategy to finance measures that will provide a support plan for the agri-food sector. I strongly believe that this will be a very important and useful tool to help the sector remain robust and resilient to overcome the crisis. †
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