JJJ

Jaspers-Jeremie-Jessica

In the context of cohesion policy, enhanced cooperation between the European Commission and the European Investment Bank Group and other International Financial Institutions on financial engineering, has several dimensions:

providing additional loan resources for business formation and development in the regions of the EU,
contributing financial and managerial expertise from specialist institutions such as the EIB Group and other International Financial Institutions,
creating strong incentives for successful implementation by beneficiaries by combining grants with loans,
ensuring long-term sustainability through the revolving character of the European Regional Development Fund’s (ERDF) contribution to financial engineering actions.

This is why the Commission drew attention to this important field of improving access to finance, in its Communication of July 2005, “Cohesion Policy in support of growth and jobs, Community strategic guidelines 2007-2013”. In particular, the Commission refers to the need to enhance support for start-ups and micro-enterprises, through technical assistance, grants, as well as non-grant instruments such as loans, equity, venture capital or guarantees, and highlights the added value of undertaking these actions in cooperation with the EIB group. Evaluations and studies demonstrate a clear correlation between, on the one hand, access to finance and risk capital for small and medium enterprises and, on the other hand, economic growth and competitiveness. Improving access to finance and risk capital for SMEs is therefore a key element of the Union’s Growth and Jobs Agenda and in this context, ERDF resources allocated to this objective in the new programming period will count in full to Lisbon earmarking targets.

For the next period of cohesion policy programmes between 2007 and 2013, three initiatives are currently prepared:

JASPERS: Joint Assistance in Supporting Projects in European Regions;
JEREMIE: Joint European Resources for Micro to medium Enterprises;
JESSICA: Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas.