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1. The European Investment Bank
1.1
The statutes of the EIB
1.2 Structure and
administration
1.3 Goals and activities
2. The
European Investment Fund
2.1 The
statute of the EIF, reformation
2.2
Structure et administration
2.3
Objectives and activities
Next: The funds allocated by the EIB group
1. The European
Investment Bank
1.1 The statutes of the EIB
Created in 1957 but to
be distinguished from a Community institution, the IEB is the financial
organisation of the European Union.
Its goal (article 267) " The Bank
facilitates the financing of investments related to investments in
Structural Funds and other financial tools of the Community ."
It has
held its sitting in Luxembourg since 1968.
1.2 Structure and administration
Who decides ?
The Board of Governors is
made of the Finance Ministers of each Member State. It defines the general
guidelines of the credit policy, approves the balance sheet and the annual
report, decides of the capital increase and nominates the members of the
Board of directors, the Managing Committee and the Verification Panel.
The Board of Directors is made of 25 Directors and 13 substitutes.
They are high representatives of the Finance and Economic Ministers,
executives of Banks and credit institutes. It checks the conformity of the
Bank administration with the provisions of the Treaties, the statutes and
directives of the Board of Governors. It defines the allocation of the
loans and guarantees, the conclusion of borrowings and posts the interest
rates of the loans.
Who manages?
The Managing Committee is
made of the Bank president and 7 Vice-presidents. It monitors the
management of ordinary business, prepares the decisions of the Board of
Directors and ensures them to be carried out.
Who monitors ?
The Verification Panel
is made of 3 members nominated by the Board of Governors for their skills
in public financial and accounting audit. It controls the regularity of
the operations and of the Bank outgoing books and their conformity with
the accounting rules and principles. It gets support from the internal
Audit department and an international external audit office .
Internal structure
The Bank has seven
Directorates and a body of technical advisers: general administration, 2
Directorates in charge of the Community financing, financing outside the
Community, Finance and Treasury, Studies, Legal Affairs.
Contacts at the
EIB
http://www.bei.org/pub/contact.htm
EIB offices in
Europe :
http://www.bei.org/pub/eibadr.htm
1.3 Goals and activities
As a non-profit
organisation, the EIB belongs to the 15 Member States of the European
Union and grants long-term loans for investment projects fostering the
application of the Community policies.
The EIB collaborates
with the Member States and the other Community institutions.
Within the Union : it
finances investment projects which promote the balanced development
of the different Member States integration.
Outside the Community
boarders : it contributes to aid policies and financial cooperation
applied by the Union to foster the sustainable economic development of
the third countries.
Most of the loans allocated to the third
countries support the projects that tie the links with the
Community, improve the living conditions and foster the co-enterprises
gathering local operators and companies of the European Union.
Characteristics :
The IEB clears like a
bank and gets its financial resources on the capital markets to
finance projects. The excellent note of the EIB (its bonds are always
scored with a AAA) refers to the reliability of its credit policy and
its financial operations, the quality of its loan portfolio and the
good capital base of its owners, the Member States that subscribe the
capital.
The turnover has increased so that it is nowadays the
greatest multilateral financial institution and the biggest
non-sovereign borrower in the world.
The different kinds of loans :
There are two
kinds of loans:
· The direct individual loans for the big
projects of more than 25 million Euros.
Rate: fixed, resetter or
variable
Period: from 4 to 18 years with a possible repayable after
the period
Contact : send your application for loans directly to the
EIB
· The indirect loans for the small and middle
investments.
Procedure : the EIB grants global loans to banks and
financial intermediaries that lend this money to the projects
coordinators (companies or local authorities)
Criteria established
by the EIB according to the localisation, the structure of the
company, the project..…
Rate : variable depending on the project and
the lending entity
Contact : send your application to the local
financial authorities.
Cooperation with the banking
organisations
Thus, the EIB closely collaborates with the
banking sector for its activities on the capital markets as for the
loan allocation. This cooperation is indispensable for the EIB so that
it:
· Contributes to the financing of numerous individual
projects, sometimes using intermediation
· Can
request for adequate guarantees to subsidy individual private projects,
the third of the granted guarantees is made by banks or financial
institutions.
· Can take up its role as a catalyst, in
the implementation of solid pools, allowing the financing of projects at
the best rate and period conditions , thanks to its experience in
the project evaluation calling for long-term grants.
·
Contributes to the amelioration of the SMEs' financial
environment and of the promoters of projects of small or medium
infrastructure through global loan allocations to the banking
sector.
This indirect and
decentralised financing mechanism for investments on a small or large
scale was elaborated in order to satisfy the needs of the SMEs or local
authorities. In the third countries, the EIB collaborates with national or
European commercial banks, multilateral or bilateral financial
institutions or even the Community institutions operating on the European
budgetary funds or the Member States.
The EIB will keep on cooperating
with these institutions in order to:
- Foster the most efficient
financial package,
- Share the risks
- Ensure coordination
and complementarity between different partner financial institutions.
Banks and financial
intermediaries within the European Union:
http://www.bei.org/loans/int_eu.htm#France
Banks and
financial intermediaries outside the European Union:
http://www.bei.org/loans/int_neu.htm#ACP
The EIB, partner of the institutions
The
importance of its contribution in the implementation of the essential
Community policies has triggered the development of relationships with
the European Parliament and the will of the Parliament to integrate
the works of the EIB into the evaluation and the achievement of the Union
objectives. There is also a closer cooperation with the Commission
in all the fields covered by the Bank. For instance, a cooperation
agreement was signed in order to strengthen the complementarity of the
Banks operations and the support measures of the Community budget for the
structural actions and the preparation for enlargement for the period
2000-2006. Other example : the agreement dated 6 June 2001 between the
Commission and the EIB for Research .
News Welcomeurope :
http://www.welcomeurope.com/news_fr/stimul_rech&innov.asp
2. The European Investment Fund
2.1 The statute of the EIF, reformation
Creation :
After the European Council of
Edinburgh conclusions, that had foreseen the creation of a European
Investment Fund, a conference gathering representatives of the Member
States governments has carried an act finalising the protocol on the
Bank's statutes, which allows the Community to become one of its member
and to share its capital.
The capital of the Fund is subscribed by its
members.
Reformation of the statutes:
In March 2000,
the shareholders of the European Investment Fund approved a reformation of
the institution on 20 June 2000, in order to make of the EIF the
subsidiary of the EIB Group specialised in capital-venture. The
structure of the shareholders body is tripartite and includes the EIB as
the major stakeholder (60,75%), the European Community represented by the
European Commission (30%) and a great number of banks and European
financial institutions (9,25%).
The EIF acts independently and
commercially under market conditions. It targets appropriate return
for its shareholder.
The EIB tranferred all its activities of
capital-venture to it. The EIF is now able to coordinate all the
activity in the field of capital venture in all the European Union
supporting the implementation of the Community objectives.
The EIF
also holds its sitting in Luxembourg.
2.2 Structure et administration
The Fund has almost
the same institutional structure as the EIB (General Assembly,
Supervisory Board and Financial Committee).
This new kind of
relationship between the EIB and the EIF will allow to target the
activities in highly specialised fields with a better efficiency
and will strengthen the catalyst effect of the Group within the European
banking and financial Community in favour of the SMEs.
In the frame of
groups' synergism, the EIB has pursued working on some administrative
tasks in order to allow the EIF to operate more efficiently. The Governors
of the EIB have authorised the Bank to release up to 2 billion
Euros from its management results for the capital-venture activities
to be concluded by the EIF by 2003.
2.3 Objectives and activities
Main activity: capital venture
The EIF shall subsidy
the innovative and job creating SMEs through capital venture within
the Union and 12 candidate countries.
It shall also seek
to anticipate the market evolutions.
Its investments shall focus on
the "early stage" financing:
Ÿ Development capital notably in
the case of "e-migration" investments, aimed at the dissemination of
innovation among all SMEs
· Funds focused on specific industries or
technologies (i.e. biotechnologies, agrobusiness, "enabling
technologies, nanotechnologies )
· Regional Funds
·
Funds financing the exploitation of research and development
results
· Pan-European Funds
· On a pilot basis, funds
fighting against social exclusion through micro-credit
Guarantee instruments
They constitute the
other financing tool for European SMEs, which the EIF has at his disposal
(SME Guarantee Facility, Growth and Environment Facility).
Long-term objectives
On the basis of these
concrete experiences with market operators, the EIF should become a
driving force in terms of proposal and reflection. In order to
optimise its role in the definition and implementation of the Community
policies in which it is involved, the Fund will:
· Develop a
capacity of analysis of the venture capital market in order to anticipate
its trend, to be reactive and to play fully its catalytic role
·
Propose appropriate initiative as far as new instruments for SMEs are
concerned, in close cooperation with its share holders or other partners.
Such an exercise could notably be undertaken to define instruments
tailored for the media and audiovisual sector (content industry),
the fight against social exclusion…
Transfer of know-how
is an important part of its activity, either towards the less developed
regions of the Union or to the Applicant countries. The EIF shall develop
a high-level communication policy, targeted in particular at Specialist
circles..
Next: The funds allocated by the EIB
group
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