EIF and Romania:
a longstanding partnership
The EIF began its journey with Romania in 2010. Since then, we have helped to provide over EUR 3.6bn in new SME financing to the Romanian market, which has reached over 21,000 SMEs.
The EIF’s partnership with the Romanian authorities has seen many milestones, including the launch of the JEREMIE initiative in 2008. JEREMIE was one of the EIF’s most successful mandates in the country which provided a toolbox of both equity and debt instruments for SMEs, carefully developed specifically for the Romanian market. During the same period, the EIF cemented its presence on the market by opening its Bucharest office.
Following the success of JEREMIE, the SME initiative Romania was launched in 2016 as a collaborative approach by the EU, EIB Group and the local Romanian authorities to catalyse private investment and to foster job creation across the national SME market.
The SME initiative Romania has seen a successful take-up and, consequentially, was topped-up in 2019; now enabling it to reach a firepower of up to EUR 1.38bn.
Besides these regional mandates, which are co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and national funding, the EIF is also deploying various other financial products across the country via EU mandates such as Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (COSME), InnovFin, and the Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI). These central EU mandates are crucial to delivering additional impact to the SME market, particularly in the areas of innovative, micro and high-risk SMEs.
Alain Godard
CEO of EIF
“The EIF has had the privilege of watching the Romanian economy grow; before, during and well beyond its accession to the EU in 2007. We continue to see great potential in the country and will carry on supporting the local SME market. In particular, via the European Fund for Strategic Investments SME Window, the EIF is able to respond even faster to the growing market demand.”
“JEREMIE was really a clear milestone for us; a substantial amount of work went into creating this innovative instrument, both from the EU and the EIF, as well as from the Romanian authorities. As a result of our joint approach, and thanks also to the confidence which the Romanian authorities entrusted to the EIF in implementing the ERDF programme, JEREMIE has reached almost 7,000 SMEs with over EUR 668m of EU and national financing. A great collaboration which laid the ground work for other European initiatives such as InnovFin.”
Hubert Cottogni
Director of Mandate Management, EIF
Piotr Stołowski
Head of Division,
Northern & Central Eastern Europe,
Mandate Management - Debt, EIF
“Over time we have established unique partnerships in the local market in view of jointly supporting the growth of Romanian companies with ever-more sophisticated financial instruments; thus making every euro of EU and national funding go further. We are excited to see some new and tailored instruments being developed for the country, as well as the progression of the local venture capital ecosystem in support of young innovative businesses.”
Explore our success stories
Helping SMEs at every stage
Entrepreneurs need financing and support at every stage of their development.
In close collaboration with our Romanian partners, we have developed a toolbox of financial instruments that pools resources from EU and national budgets and combines these with the commitment and expertise of the EIB Group.
