EU finance ministers welcome first EIB lending under EFSI

Once again the EIB delivered: in the past three months we have approved support for 10 projects which should benefit from the EU guarantee once EFSI is operational."

Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank

During the First Innovative Enterprise Week in Riga, the EIB Group and European Commission have launched three new financial products to boost the competitiveness of innovative companies in Europe under the "InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators" programme. Two aim to help projects in cutting-edge sectors that might otherwise not be considered bankable, and the third focuses on Venture Capital funds that target start-ups.

The EIB has signed a EUR 45m loan with Poland’s largest pharmaceuticals manufacturer, Polpharma, for research and development of biosimilar drugs. The first ever Polish InnovFin operation, it aims to provide patients with wider access to modern biological drugs and to address unmet medical needs in the area of severe and life-threatening diseases.

The EIB is lending EUR 156m for the Nordergründe wind farm, one of the first offshore wind farm projects developed in Germany. The wind farm will be built off the German coast of the North Sea and will consist of 18 turbines with a total generating capacity of 111 MW.