June 19 (SeeNews) - Erste Group said on Tuesday it signed a signed a social entrepreneurship guarantee agreement with the European Investment Fund (EIF) to provide finance for social organisations in seven countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
The agreement allows Erste Group’s network of local banks to provide a total of 50 million euro ($57.8 million) loans to more than 500 social organisations under the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) over the next five years in Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, the bank said in a statement.
The financing agreement was made possible by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the core of the Investment Plan for Europe, Erste Group said.
"We welcome the EU involvement to support entrepreneurs, as with the help of instruments such as the EaSI Guarantee Scheme we can now reach more social organisations offering financing and capacity building," the Erste Group CEO, Andreas Treichl, said.
Erste Group will provide financing to innovative, socially-oriented organisations active in the education, health and social services sectors, or employing disadvantaged, marginalised, or vulnerable groups, the bank noted.
The EaSI Guarantee scheme was launched in June 2015 and is funded by the EU Commission and managed by the EIF. Social enterprises wishing to apply for a loan under EaSI can contact Erste Group branches in one of the seven countries.
EIF is part of the European Investment Bank Group. Its central mission is to support Europe's SMEs by helping them access finance.
($ = 0.865512 euro)