WRITTEN QUESTION P-0386/99

by Marianne Thyssen (PPE) to the Commission

(19 February 1999)

Subject: Growth and employment

Following the employment summit in Luxemburg and on the initiative of the European Parliament, the Council approved the new growth and employment programme in May. It was endowed with EUR 450 million.

The programme provides for support to be given to SMEs to make it easier for them to gain access to financing and so to enable them to grow and create employment. It consists of three components: a guarantee facility, a venture capital facility and a joint venture programme.

My contacts reveal that SMEs are not sufficiently familiar with this programme. Now that it has been in operation for nine months, can the Commission say:

1. how SMEs have been informed of the venture capital funds, guarantee facilities and financial institutions of which they may avail themselves in order to benefit from this programme;

2. how many intermediary institutions of this kind are already in operation for each of the components, and in which regions or countries;

3. how many and what kind of SMEs (sector, size, country) have already taken advantage of the growth and employment programme?

Answer given by Mr de Silguy on behalf of the Commission

(27 April 1999)

1. As regards the ETF Start-up and the guarantee facility components, managed by the European Investment Fund (EIF), a list of the chosen funds and intermediaries is available on the Internet (http://www.eif.org). The approved intermediaries are also preparing their own promotional material for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

For the Joint European Venture programme (JEV), the list of financial intermediaries can be found on the Internet sites of: DG II's Financial Operations Service (FOS), DG XXII and the Euro info centres (EICs). The financial intermediaries are encouraged to promote JEV and the Commission intends to part-finance promotional activities. To date, various activities have been undertaken, some by the EICs, some by organisations representing SMEs and some by the financial intermediaries themselves.

2. For the ETF Start-up component, two funds have been selected (France and Germany) and negotiations are in progress with seven other funds covering a further five Member States. For the guarantee facility component, two contracts have been signed (Netherlands and Austria) and negotiations are in progress in Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Italy and Finland. For JEV, 80 financial intermediaries have so far been selected covering all Member States.

3. For the ETF Start-up component, no data are available as yet since the contracts have only just been signed. As regards the guarantee facility, only one Austrian intermediary was in operation at 31 December 1998.

For the JEV component, 34 SMEs from 12 Member States have so far received assistance from the programme with a view to setting up 17 joint ventures. The SMEs which have benefited are active in the following sectors: manufacturing, environment, information technology, logistics and transport, biotechnology, health, construction and commerce. 16 of them have fewer than 10 employees. According to the forecasts provided by the SMEs, each joint venture will create an average of 15 jobs.