Coronavirus: easier access to finance for business of the Cultural and Creative sectors

Today, the Commission and the European Investment Fund (EIF) have launched new support measures for cultural and creative businesses to access finance more easily. The EIF will provide more flexibility in its guarantees and counter-guarantees to financial intermediaries with the ultimate goal of alleviating the resulting economic constraints caused by the coronavirus crisis. Concretely, businesses will for example benefit from extensions of repayment terms or temporary credit interruptions. This will help various creative sectors including news media, audiovisual, design, visual arts, music, architecture sub-sectors. Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market, said: “The social and economic shock caused by the coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented in our generation. The creative and cultural sector has been particularly hard-hit a sector that touches our daily lives and helps to form our opinions, values, and our culture. That is why the revision of this financial tool is vital, to help this industry more easily access financing and thus weather the current storm.” The new support measures will be made available on the market from August 2020 and apply retroactively to loans due from 1 April 2020. This will be done under the existing €251 million Cultural and Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility via a new call. It will benefit existing financial intermediaries already working with the European Investment Fund, as well as to new beneficiaries. The revision of this financial tool – that has already supported over 2,000 Cultural and Creative Sector enterprises across Europe – will enhance further access to finance for SMEs and Small Public Enterprises in the sector by incentivising financial intermediaries to provide more flexible terms and conditions on loans. More information in the press release.