Investment Plan for Europe: €25 million for cultural and creative businesses in Portugal

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  First Cultural and Creative Sector guarantee facility signature in Portugal
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  Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) to launch a new financing product backing from the European Commission

The European Investment Fund (EIF) and Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) have signed an agreement in Portugal under the European Commission’s Cultural and Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility (CCS) programme. The agreement benefits from the support of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the heart of the Investment Plan for Europe, the Juncker Plan.

CGD will launch a new product - Caixa Invest Cultura Criativa - to finance small and medium companies in the cultural and creative sector in Portugal.

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Digital economy and society said: “Start-ups and businesses in the cultural and creative sector have a huge potential to unleash. To better contribute to job creation and growth in Portugal, they definitively need to get better access to finance. Thanks to the Juncker Plan agreements, Portuguese businesses will receive EU support to turn their ideas into concrete cultural and creative projects.”

Commenting on the signature, EIF Chief Executive, Pier Luigi Gilibert, said: “Our cultural and creative industries are a vital part of the economy. We should maintain the pipeline of talent in these sectors in order to create better futures for creators, to provide local jobs and enable-millions of people, many of them young, to make a living from their talent. We are confident that with our support, CGD via can help boost this sector, creating the platform for greater and more sustainable growth.”

CDG Chief Executive, Paulo Moita de Macedo said: “We are proud to be the first bank in Portugal that signed the culture and creative sector guarantee facility. The creative industry is vital to win the future. In a few years, our society will be more dependent on creativity than on oil. More than guaranteeing loans, we are promoting thousands of jobs for those who dare to go beyond. This is an excellent tool to bridge the financing gap for the creative sectors.”

These transactions in Portugal reflect the European Commission’s strong commitment to deliver on one of its top political priorities: boosting jobs, growth and investment across Europe.

About EIF

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank Group. Its central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them to access finance. EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments which specifically target this market segment. In this role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment. More information on EIF's work under EFSI is available here.

About CGD

CGD is the largest financial institution in Portugal, 100% owned by the Portuguese State, and is active in all areas of financial services. Caixa owns the Fundação Caixa Geral de Depósitos , with Culturgest, one of the most daring creative cultural houses in Portugal . More information on Caixa Geral de Depósitos is available here.

About the Investment Plan for Europe

The Investment Plan for Europe, known as the “Juncker Plan”, is one of the European Commission’s top priorities. It focuses on boosting investment to generate jobs and growth by making smarter use of new and existing financial resources, removing obstacles to investment, and providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects.

The European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) is the main pillar of the Juncker Plan and provides first loss guarantees, enabling the EIB to invest in more projects that often come with greater risks. EFSI has already yielded tangible results. The projects and agreements approved for financing under EFSI are expected to mobilise almost EUR 390 billion in investments, including EUR 8.7 billion in Portugal, and support 929 000 SMEs in the 28 Member States.

More information on the results of the Investment Plan for Europe is available here.

About the Cultural and Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility and Creative Europe

Set up under the cross-sectoral strand of the Creative Europe programme, the Cultural and Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility is the first EU investment instrument with such a wide scope in the culture and creative sectors. Creative Europe is a 7-year programme (2014-2020) which has a budget of EUR 1.46 billion for the duration of the period. The objective of Creative Europe is to promote cultural diversity, encourage the circulation of European culture and creativity and strengthen the competitiveness of the cultural and creative sectors.

Businesses can contact selected financial institutions in their country to access EU financing: http://www.access2finance.eu/.