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Guide to Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation

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authorities or energy service companies (ESCOs), or invest in such projects indirectly<br />

via financial institutions120. (Policy DG in charge: DG ENERGY).<br />

Structural Funds<br />

• In the present programming period (2007-2013), under the principle of shared<br />

management, Structural Funds' resources can be contributed <strong>to</strong> financial engineering<br />

instruments, which invest in the <strong>for</strong>m of equity, loans, guarantees or other <strong>for</strong>ms of<br />

repayable investments in enterprises, mainly SMEs, public private partnerships, urban<br />

development projects, or in legal or natural persons carrying out specific investment<br />

activities in energy efficiency <strong>and</strong> renewable energies. Cohesion policy does not finance<br />

individual projects directly at the EU level, instead it funds multi-annual national or<br />

regional operational programmes aligned with EU objectives <strong>and</strong> priorities <strong>and</strong> managed<br />

by national or regional authorities. EU Structural Funds are implemented within the<br />

framework of shared management <strong>and</strong> the legislation defines a clear division of<br />

responsibilities between Member States <strong>and</strong> the Commission.<br />

• JEREMIE - Joint European Resources <strong>for</strong> Micro <strong>to</strong> Medium Enterprises, is an initiative<br />

of the European Commission's Direc<strong>to</strong>rate General <strong>for</strong> Regional Policy (DG REGIO)<br />

developed <strong>to</strong>gether with the European Investment Fund in order <strong>to</strong> promote the use of<br />

financial engineering instruments <strong>to</strong> improve access <strong>to</strong> finance <strong>for</strong> SMEs via Structural<br />

Funds interventions 121 . (Policy DG in charge: DG REGIO).<br />

• JESSICA - Joint European Support <strong>for</strong> Sustainable Investment in City Areas, is a joint<br />

initiative of the European Commission's Direc<strong>to</strong>rate General <strong>for</strong> Regional Policy (DG<br />

REGIO) developed in co-operation with the European Investment Bank (EIB) <strong>and</strong> the<br />

Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) which is aimed at supporting sustainable<br />

urban development <strong>and</strong> regeneration through financial engineering mechanisms 122 .<br />

European Agricultural Fund <strong>for</strong> Rural Development (EAFRD)<br />

In the current programming period (2007-2013), similar <strong>to</strong> the Structural Funds <strong>and</strong> under the<br />

principle of shared management, the EAFRD contributes <strong>to</strong> support financial engineering<br />

actions such as loan funds, guarantee funds <strong>and</strong> venture capital funds. These funds, the set up<br />

of which depends on the choice of the Member States <strong>and</strong> on their needs, invest in agricultural<br />

<strong>and</strong> food processing enterprises, rural non-agricultural micro- <strong>and</strong> <strong>to</strong>urism businesses, or in<br />

legal or natural persons carrying out specific investment activities in rural areas in accordance<br />

with the relevant rural development programmes. Like in the case of the Cohesion policy, the<br />

EU rural development policy does not finance individual projects directly at the EU level,<br />

instead it funds multi-annual national or regional rural development programmes aligned with<br />

EU rural development objectives <strong>and</strong> priorities, <strong>and</strong> managed by national or regional<br />

authorities 123 . (Policy DG in charge: DG AGRI)<br />

EIB Group's own resources<br />

The European Investment Bank is the long-term financing institution of the European Union<br />

<strong>and</strong> its mission is <strong>to</strong> help implement the EU's policy objectives by financing sound business<br />

projects. Within this context the priority objectives <strong>for</strong> the EIB’s lending activities set out in<br />

120 http://ec.europa.eu/energy/eepr/eeef/eeef_en.htm<br />

121 http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/thefunds/instruments/jeremie_en.cfm<br />

122 http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/thefunds/instruments/jessica_en.cfm<br />

123 http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rurdev/index_en.htm<br />

98

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