Boosting SMEs in the cultural and creative sectors: European Commission and EIF launch a new guarantee scheme

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The European Commission and the European Investment Fund (EIF) today launched a EUR 121 million guarantee initiative to support SMEs in the cultural and creative sectors via financial institutions.

The European Commission and the European Investment Fund (EIF) today launched a €121 million guarantee initiative to support SMEs in the cultural and creative sectors via financial institutions. This scheme is expected to create more than €600 million worth of bank loans over the next six years.

Today's initiative allows the EIF to provide guarantees and counter-guarantees, free of charge, to selected financial intermediaries in order to enable them to provide more debt finance to entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative arena. Guarantee institutions, commercial and promotional banks as well as other financial intermediaries benefiting from the €121 million guarantee will support more than ten thousand SMEs in a wide range of sectors such as audiovisual (including film, television, animation, video games and multimedia), festivals, music, literature, architecture, archives, libraries and museums, artistic crafts, cultural heritage, design, performing arts, publishing, radio and visual arts.

The financial instrument, set-up under Creative Europe– the main EU programme dedicated to the cultural and creative sectors, will be managed by the EIF on behalf of the European Commission. European SMEs should benefit from it as early as of the end of this year.

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