EU implements guarantee action under Progress Microfinance Facility

The European Union has published in the EU Official Journal of 24 July 2010 a notice addressed to intermediaries aiming to provide micro-credits or guarantees supporting micro-credits, about the implementation of the Guarantee Action under the European Progress Microfinance Facility. Among the 100 M€ channelled through Progress Facility, 25 M€ will be allocated to this Action Guarantee.

The European Union has mandated the European Investment Fund (EIF) to implement a guarantee action under the European Progress Microfinance Facility for employment and social inclusion by issuing guarantees, in its own name but on the account and risk of the European Union covering micro-credits or guarantees supporting micro-credits.

The Guarantee Action aims to provide European Union resources to increase access to, and availability of, microfinance for final beneficiaries as defined in the Decision establishing the Facility.

This Guarantee Action is open to public and private bodies established on national, regional or local levels in the Member States which provide micro-credits, or guarantees supporting micro-credits to persons and micro-enterprises in the Member States of the European Union. The indicative total appropriations from the Union budget for the Facility for the period from 1 January  2010 to 31 December 2013 are 100 million Euro, out of which an amount of 25 million Euro is earmarkedfor the Guarantee Action.

Prospective intermediaries can obtain detailed information on the Guarantee Action from the European Investment Fund (EIF) website, by e-mail at info@eif.org, or by contacting EIF at:

European Investment Fund
96, boulevard Konrad Adenauer
2968 Luxembourg
LUXEMBOURG

The contact details of intermediaries benefiting from a guarantee issued by EIF under the Guarantee Action will be published on the EIF's website in order to allow final beneficiaries to make direct contact with these intermediaries.

Applications from the intermediaries will be examined by the EIF on a continuous basis, within constraints of the available Union budget allocations. The EIF will seek to promote a balanced geographic distribution.