Greece Welcomes €500m Business Investment Scheme

EIM VP Andrew McDowell with Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis.

Small and medium sized businesses across Greece will benefit from a new 500 million euros investment programme launched by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and European Investment bank (EIB) Vice President Andrew McDowell in Athens on Friday.

The new business financing initiative, supported by the European Investment Fund, is aimed to help Greek companies to better access finance and unlock investment to encourage innovation, enhance competitiveness and foster greater entrepreneurship.

According to an announcement by EIB, the scheme is designed to address the significant financing gap holding back investment and job creation by businesses across Greece.

“I welcome the new 500 million euros European Investment Fund scheme launched today that will help companies to accelerate investment in the coming months. This will also help to strengthen resilience to new challenges linked to the coronavirus,” said the Greek PM.

The funding agreement to enable the European Investment Fund to set up a 100 million euros guarantee facility to support 500 million euros of financing for small and medium sized enterprises across Greece was signed by Deputy Minister Yiannis Tsakiris and EIB’s VP, McDowell, at the Maximos Mansion in Athens.

“The new 100 million euros agreement between the European Investment Fund and the Hellenic Ministry of Development and Investments confirmed today will support 500 million euros of new business investment across Greece over the next four years,” said McDowell.

“Increasing economic uncertainty arising from the coronavirus means that now more than ever it is important to ensure adequate credit availability for SMEs making investment plans for the medium-term,” he added.

The European Investment Fund will manage EU budget funds provided under the Operational Programme for Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Lending will be managed by banks active in Greece following selection of financial institutions in the coming months.

Over the last 4 years the European Investment Bank Group has provided more than 4.7 billion euros of private sector investment across Greece.