MEP urges small businesses to avail of EU investment funds
SEAN Kelly, MEP for Ireland South and leader of Fine Gael in the European Parliament, is urging County Wexford businesses to make full use of opportunities available under the EU Investment Plan to mitigate against the potential economic impacts of Brexit in the coming years.
Mr. Kelly was speaking from the Talbot Hotel in Wexford where he hosted a public meeting on ‘Brexit and the EU Investment Plan’, which also included contributions from Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Michael D’Arcy; President of the Irish Road Hauliers Association, Verona Murphy; Jacek Truszczynski of the European Commission; and Head of the European Investment Bank’s Dublin Office, Cormac Murphy.
In his opening address, Mr. Kelly highlighted the potential of the EU Investment Plan for Ireland as the UK’s withdrawal date draws nearer.
‘ The EU Investment Plan has been a huge success in recent years, and it perfectly demonstrates the benefit of be- ing a member of the European Union’, he said.
‘ The flagship programme thus far has been EFSI (European Fund for Strategic Investments), which mobilised €371.2 billion in additional investments up to December 2018, and which will hit €500 billion by 2020, supporting 856,000 EU SMEs in the process.’
‘EFSI will soon be succeeded by the new InvestEU Programme, which is set to mobilise a further €650 billion in additional investments by 2027, and for which I have the privilege of being part of the European Parliament’s negotiating team.’
‘Even a fraction of this €650 billion investment coming Ireland’s way would bring significant job creation and help support our companies through the challenges set to be brought on by Brexit’ said the MEP.
He said a key improvement that InvestEU has over EFSI is the focus on small businesses and helping them to access finance. InvestEU will ensure that adequate support is allocated to smaller companies and projects.
‘A good project that is strug- gling to get financing would be able to go to the EIB or another InvestEU implementing partner, and if it meets the required criteria, the EU Guarantee can take on some of the risk and increase the likelihood of financing’, he said.
‘We all know of cases where a perfectly good business ven- ture or project fails to get off the ground due to difficulties obtaining financial backing for whatever reason – this is where the Investment Plan comes in.
The opportunities for Ireland are clear, especially as it means an overwhelming majority of our companies would qualify for support as a result.’