Press Release: Initiative to boost growth of SMEs: EU wants to triple early-stage capital investments

Innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can only grow if they have proper access to risk capital. This is not always the case in the EU. To tackle this problem the European Commission has unveiled June 2006 a set of measures to help small companies get easier access to external financing so that they can start-up and expand. The Commission’s initiative includes measures to generate more risk capital investments, to develop bank finance for innovation and to make existing financing systems more SME friendly. The Commission has set the objective to work towards tripling the annual early-stage investment in the EU from €2 billion to €6 billion by 2013. The initiative foresees an increased EU financial contribution to early-stage investments in innovative firms, the promotion of an internal market for venture capital and encouraging traditional bank funding for innovation. The lack of an equity investment culture, informational problems and market fragmentation are among the main reasons for the market not satisfactorily playing its role in the EU. The Commission also invites the Member States to assume their responsibilities. For more information, see MEMO/06/259.

European Commission: DG Communication: MEMO/06/259: Growth and jobs: Commission provides more means to finance innovative SMEs http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/06/259&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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