Presentation by Ms. Kristin Schreiber, Director, COSME Programme, DG GROW, European Commission - EU financial instruments available for SMEs from the EU enlargement region, at the Launch of the SME Policy Index for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2016. 28 April 2016, OECD, Paris, France.

1. Improving the business environment
and access to finance for SMEs
Paris, 28 April 2016
Kristin SCHREIBER
Director, COSME Programme
DG Growth, European Commission

2. What is the Small business act (SBA)?
• Communication in place since 2008,
• A set of politically binding principles, and
• A set of concrete measures (legislative and non-
legislative)
Objectives:
1. Improve the overall policy approach to
entrepreneurship in Europe
2. Anchor the “Think Small First” principle in policy-
making by removing the remaining barriers for SMEs
3. Promote SMEs’ growth

3. What are the 10 SBA principle areas?
1. Entrepreneurship
2. "Second Chance"
3. "Think small first"
4. "Responsive administration"
5. Public Procurement
6. Access to Finance
7. Single Market
8. Skills & Innovation
9. Environment
10. Internationalisation

4. Think Small First
1. Public administration
responsive to SMEs'
needs
- e-government
solutions
- 'only once' principle
- common
commencement dates
Simplifying the regulatory and
administrative environment for SMEs
2. Impact assessment
for new legislation
- exemptions for micro-
enterprises
- SME Test
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5. Responsive administration
Example: Improving start-up times (in days)

6. Start-up initiative
Consultation on improving environment
for start-ups in Europe
Open until 31 July 2016
Set of measures to increase and diversify the
funding sources for Europe’s businesses
Capital Markets Union

7. Data from "Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises (SAFE)"
December 2015
Access to finance as the most
important issue in South East Europe

8. EU financial instruments 2014-2020

9. COSME Financial Instruments
• Support those SMEs which would otherwise not obtain financing
through:
 Debt financing: Focus on higher risk SMEs/riskier transactions
 Equity financing: Focus on SMEs in their growth and expansion
phase
• Overall target: Provide support to up to 330 000 SMEs; mobilise
up to €25 billion in financing
• Total budget of approximately €1.4 billion for both instruments,
allocated on demand

10. EU debt financial instruments
(31/03/2016)
Since roll-out in summer 2014 over €5.5bn has already been committed to
agreements with financial intermediaries in 27 countries.

11. EU support in Western Balkan & Turkey
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
WB EDIF
Structural Funds
RSI
Progress
InnovFin
EIB
EaSI
COSME
CIP
NOofagreements

12. Over 100 agreements with financial
institutions in Western Balkan & Turkey
such as with …
• COSME agreement -
(Romania):
• EU support is expected to mobilise
EUR 53 million to the benefit of over
1,650 companies.
• InnovFin (7 countries in
Western Balkan):
• The umbrella agreement will help to
finance innovative companies with a total
of EUR 250 million

13. More than 100,000 companies already
benefited from new EU financial
programmes (2014-2020) across Europe
• COSME support for
Basarom Com (Romania):
Vendor of machineries for agriculture
and construction
• WB EDIF support for Biohem
(Bosnia & Herzegovina):
laboratory for medical diagnostics

14. How to apply for EU Finance
 Financial institutions invited to apply by Sept 2020
www.eif.org
 Businesses invited to apply for EU finance
www.access2finance.eu
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