France announces €1.2bn investment to help small firms

The European Investment Bank and the French Public Investment Bank on Monday signed an agreement worth 1.2 billion euros (1.57 billion U.S. dollars) to finance domestic small-and medium-seized enterprises and improve their competitiveness, Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said. "The European Investment Bank will mobilize 1.2 billion euros in joint operations with France's Public Bank of Investment to provide our small- and medium-sized firms (SME) with additional funding capacity," Moscovici said. The accord, which include jointly funded lending mainly to innovative businesses and support fund, was "a major event and reflects all the importance of the role of SMEs to back growth recovery in Europe," a few days before a European summit scheduled for June 27 and 28, the Finance Ministry added in a statement. With 40 billion euros of financing capacity, the Public Investment Bank, set up at the start of this year to fulfil an election promise of Socialist President Francois Hollande, will invest 9.2 billion euros in French companies through 2017 to help them improve their competitiveness and well position their products and services in global markets.