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FUNDING Europe / Spain

First partnership in Spain for the Creative Europe guarantee fund

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- On 23 January the European Investment Fund (EIF) signed its first partnership agreement for €150 million worth of credit in Spain

First partnership in Spain for the Creative Europe guarantee fund

It is in Spain that the European Investment Fund, which manages the guarantee mechanism put in place within the context of the Creative Europe programme, has signed its first partnership agreement guaranteeing credit for SMEs operating in the cultural and creative sectors. The agreement was signed on 23 January in Madrid with CERSA (Compañía Española de Reafianzamiento), a parapublic body that grants loans to Spanish SMEs. SGRs (mutual guarantee companies – Sociedades de Garantía Recíproca), which have 60 offices across Spain, will act as intermediaries. 

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The EIF will cover up to 70% of the loans granted to Spanish small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the cultural and creative sectors, up to a total of €150 million. Some 1,000 cultural enterprises will be eligible, covering the film, video games, publishing, music and stagecraft sectors. 

Funding will be channelled through mutual guarantee companies (SGRs), and most notably through CREA SGR, a body set up in 2005 by the Spanish Ministry for Culture (ICAA) and EGEDA, a company which manages the rights of audiovisual producers; over the last 10 years, it has supported over 1,200 cultural projects with a total of €250 million. It has also supported several Spanish films, including The Fury of a Patient Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Raúl Arévalo
film profile
]
by Raúl Arévalo (2016), which stood out at Venice and in competition at the Premiers Plans Festival, Smoke & Mirrors [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alberto Rodríguez
film profile
]
by Alberto Rodriguez (2016), which is due to be released in France on 19 April (Ad Vitam), and Spanish Affair [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Emilio Martínez Lázaro, which recorded the best box-office takings in the history of Spanish film in 2014. 

“The EIF’s decision to entrust the allocation of this new financial product to CERSA and the mutual guarantee companies (SGRs) is the result of a strong partnership that has existed between out institutions since 2000, and which has allowed us together to support over 90,000 companies in Spain, stated Mario Buisan, the president of CERSA. This new financial instrument will rest on our expertise in the creative and cultural sectors”.

Managed by the EIF on the behalf of Creative Europe and launched officially last June, the guarantee instrument for the cultural and creative sectors has a budget of €121 million; taking its multiplier effect into account, it can cover up to €600 million worth of credit. The call for expressions of interest published last summer by the EIF will remain open to any financial intermediaries that may be interested until 30 September 2020.

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(Translated from French)

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