This document is an excerpt from the EUR-Lex website
European Fund for Strategic Investments
European Fund for Strategic Investments
European Fund for Strategic Investments
The EFSI aims at supporting strategic investments in key areas, such as infrastructure, energy efficiency, renewable energy, research and innovation, and increasing access to financing for entities with up to 3,000 employees, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small mid-cap companies*. It achieves this by providing risk-bearing capacity through its EU guarantee to the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF) (which together make up the EIB Group). Overall, the EFSI had a target to mobilise €500 billion of additional investments by the end of 2020.
The EFSI’s governance consists of:
Eligibility conditions
To be eligible for EFSI support, projects must:
EU guarantee and Guarantee Fund
The EU guarantee is an irrevocable, unconditional and first demand guarantee to the EIB and EIF, which aims to increase the volume of higher-risk projects or support otherwise additional projects. The maximum EU guarantee amounts to €26 billion.
The EU Guarantee Fund is a liquidity cushion from which the EIB Group is to be paid in the event of the default of a supported EFSI operation. It is funded from the EU budget and the revenues originating from EFSI-guaranteed operations.
European Investment Advisory Hub
European Investment Project Portal
This is a publicly accessible, user-friendly database containing details of current and future investment projects in the EU.
Extension of the EFSI
The EFSI was created in 2015 for an initial period of 3 years. The initial Regulation (EU) 2015/1017 was amended in December 2017 by Regulation (EU) 2017/2396, which:
InvestEU programme — EFSI’s successor
For more information, see:
Regulation (EU) 2015/1017 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 June 2015 on the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the European Investment Advisory Hub and the European Investment Project Portal and amending Regulations (EU) No 1291/2013 and (EU) No 1316/2013 — the European Fund for Strategic Investments (OJ L 169, 1.7.2015, pp. 1-38)
Successive amendments to Regulation (EU) 2015/1017 have been incorporated into the original text. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.
Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Central Bank, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and the European Investment Bank — Investment plan for Europe: stock-taking and next steps (COM(2018) 771 final)
Commission staff working document — Evaluation of the European Fund for Strategic Investments, of the European Investment Advisory Hub, and of the European Investment Project Portal — Accompanying the document ‘Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the InvestEU programme’ (SWD(2018) 316 final)
Commission staff working document — Impact assessment accompanying the document ‘Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the InvestEU programme’ (SWD(2018) 314 final)
last update 20.07.2021