EIF sets up JEREMIE implementation team

JEREMIE stands for Joint European Resources for Micro-to-Medium Enterprises, and is a joint initiative by the European Commission, European Investment Bank and European Investment Fund to support access to finance for SMEs and development of micro-credit for the next programming period. This will enable Member States and Regions to use part of their structural funds (being formerly known as financial engineering) through the EIF (with the possible leverage of EIB/EIF and other International Financial Institution resources as appropriate) to obtain a set of financial products specifically engineered for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

EIF will be entrusted with the implementation of this initiative, which is expected to become operational in 2007. To this effect, a specific team will be constituted for the setting up of the necessary infrastructure in EIF, to ensure full operational capacity is in place by the end of 2006. The JEREMIE Implementation Team will be under the responsibility of Marc Schublin.