On behalf of JJDH, on the EIB’s arrangements for financing small and medium-sized enterprises through the European Investment Fund 

The petitioner, who runs a micro-enterprise with under 20 employees, queries the EU institutions with regard to beneficiaries and financing arrangements for EIB financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (of an intermediate size, similar to hers). Despite meeting requirements, her innovative cosmetics and pharmaceutical company (which produces shea butter in the traditional way) has, according to the petitioner, repeatedly been refused access to financing by the intermediary credit institutions (BPI France and Banque Postale). The petitioner complains in particular that financing is not granted by the EIB in the form of direct loans to beneficiaries, but rather through project procurement procedures, with a too broad margin for discretion in the choice of beneficiaries. In the petitioner’s case, the petitioner claims that her company stood to receive financing for innovation, totalling EUR 21 000 through financial intermediaries, but the arrangements applicable to the guarantees provided by the BPI lacked transparency.