Regulation (EU) 2021/523 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 March 2021 establishing the InvestEU Programme and amending Regulation (EU) 2015/1017
Modified by
  • Regulation (EU) 2024/795 of the European Parliament and of the Councilof 29 February 2024establishing the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), and amending Directive 2003/87/EC and Regulations (EU) 2021/1058, (EU) 2021/1056, (EU) 2021/1057, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 223/2014, (EU) 2021/1060, (EU) 2021/523, (EU) 2021/695, (EU) 2021/697 and (EU) 2021/241, 32024R0795, February 29, 2024
Regulation (EU) 2021/523 of the European Parliament and of the Councilof 24 March 2021establishing the InvestEU Programme and amending Regulation (EU) 2015/1017 CHAPTER IGeneral provisions
Article 1Subject matterThis Regulation establishes the InvestEU Fund, which shall provide for an EU guarantee to support financing and investment operations carried out by the implementing partners that contribute to objectives of the Union’s internal policies.This Regulation also establishes an advisory support mechanism to provide support for the development of investable projects and access to financing and to provide related capacity building assistance (the "InvestEU Advisory Hub"). It further establishes a database granting visibility to projects for which project promoters seek financing and which provides investors with information about investment opportunities (the "InvestEU Portal").This Regulation establishes the objectives of the InvestEU Programme, its budget and the amount of the EU guarantee for the period 2021 to 2027, the forms of Union funding and the rules for providing such funding.
Article 2DefinitionsFor the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:(1)"InvestEU Programme" means the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub, the InvestEU Portal and blending operations, collectively;(2)"EU guarantee" means an overall irrevocable, unconditional and on demand budgetary guarantee provided by the Union budget under which the budgetary guarantees in accordance with Article 219(1) of the Financial Regulation take effect through the entry into force of individual guarantee agreements with implementing partners;(3)"policy window" means a targeted area for support by the EU guarantee as laid down in Article 8(1);(4)"compartment" means a part of the EU guarantee defined in terms of the origin of the resources backing it;(5)"blending operation" means an operation supported by the Union budget that combines non-repayable forms of support, repayable forms of support, or both, from the Union budget with repayable forms of support from development or other public finance institutions, or from commercial finance institutions and investors; for the purposes of this definition, Union programmes financed from sources other than the Union budget, such as the EU ETS Innovation Fund, may be assimilated to Union programmes financed by the Union budget;(6)"EIB Group" means the EIB, its subsidiaries and other entities established in accordance with Article 28(1) of Protocol No 5 on the Statute of the European Investment Bank annexed to the TEU and the TFEU (the EIB Statute);(7)"financial contribution" means a contribution from an implementing partner in the form of own risk-taking capacity that is provided on a pari passu basis with the EU guarantee or in another form that allows an efficient implementation of the InvestEU Programme while ensuring appropriate alignment of interest;(8)"contribution agreement" means a legal instrument whereby the Commission and one or more Member States specify the conditions of the EU guarantee under the Member State compartment, as laid down in Article 10;(9)"financial product" means a financial mechanism or arrangement under the terms of which the implementing partner provides direct or intermediated financing to final recipients using any of the types of financing referred to in Article 16;(10)"financing and investment operations" or "financing or investment operations" means operations to provide finance directly or indirectly to final recipients through financial products, carried out by an implementing partner in its own name, provided by the implementing partner in accordance with its internal rules, policies and procedures and accounted for in the implementing partner’s financial statements or, where applicable, disclosed in the notes to those financial statements;(11)"funds under shared management" means funds that provide for the possibility of allocating a portion of those funds to the provisioning for a budgetary guarantee under the Member State compartment of the InvestEU Fund, namely the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund to be established by a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Regional Development Fund and on the Cohesion Fund for the years 2021-2027, the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) to be established by a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) (the "ESF+ Regulation for 2021-2027"), the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) to be established by a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund and repealing Regulation (EU) No 508/2014 and the European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) to be established by a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing rules on support for strategic plans to be drawn up by Member States under the Common agricultural policy (CAP Strategic Plans) and financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (the "CAP Strategic Plans Regulation");(12)"guarantee agreement" means a legal instrument whereby the Commission and an implementing partner specify the conditions for proposing financing and investment operations in order for them to be granted the benefit of the EU guarantee, for providing the EU guarantee for those operations and for implementing them in accordance with this Regulation;(13)"implementing partner" means an eligible counterpart such as a financial institution or other financial intermediary with whom the Commission has concluded a guarantee agreement;(14)"important project of common European interest" means a project that fulfils all the criteria laid down in the Commission Communication on Criteria for the analysis of the compatibility with the internal market of State aid to promote the execution of important projects of common European interest or any subsequent revision of that Communication;(15)"advisory agreement" means a legal instrument whereby the Commission and the advisory partner specify the conditions for the implementation of the InvestEU Advisory Hub;(16)"advisory initiative" means technical assistance and advisory services that support investment, including capacity building activities, provided by advisory partners, by external service providers contracted by the Commission, or by executive agencies;(17)"advisory partner" means an eligible counterpart such as a financial institution or other entity with whom the Commission has concluded an advisory agreement for the purpose of implementing one or more advisory initiatives, other than advisory initiatives implemented through external service providers contracted by the Commission or through executive agencies;(18)"investment platform" means a special purpose vehicle, managed account, contract-based co-financing or risk-sharing arrangement or an arrangement established by any other means by which entities channel a financial contribution in order to finance a number of investment projects, and which may include:(a)a national or sub-national platform that groups together several investment projects on the territory of a given Member State;(b)a cross-border, multi-country, regional or macro-regional platform that groups together partners from several Member States, regions or third countries interested in investment projects in a given geographic area;(c)a thematic platform that groups together investment projects in a given sector;(19)"microfinance" means microfinance as defined in the relevant provisions of the ESF+ Regulation for 2021-2027;(20)"national promotional bank or institution" means a legal entity that carries out financial activities on a professional basis which has been given mandate by a Member State or a Member State’s entity at central, regional or local level to carry out development or promotional activities;(21)"small and medium-sized enterprise" or "SME" means a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise within the meaning of the Annex to Commission Recommendation 2003/361/ECCommission Recommendation 2003/361/EC of 6 May 2003 concerning the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (OJ L 124, 20.5.2003, p. 36).;(22)"small mid-cap company" means an entity that is not an SME and that employs up to 499 employees;(23)"social enterprise" means a social enterprise as defined in the relevant provisions of the ESF+ Regulation for 2021-2027.
Article 3Objectives of the InvestEU Programme1.The general objective of the InvestEU Programme is to support the policy objectives of the Union by means of financing and investment operations that contribute to:(a)the competitiveness of the Union, including research, innovation and digitisation;(b)growth and employment in the Union economy, the sustainability of the Union economy and its environmental and climate dimension contributing to the achievement of the SDGs and the objectives of the Paris Agreement and to the creation of high-quality jobs;(c)the social resilience, inclusiveness and innovativeness of the Union;(d)the promotion of scientific and technological advances, of culture, education and training;(e)the integration of Union capital markets and the strengthening of the internal market, including solutions to address the fragmentation of Union capital markets, diversify sources of financing for Union enterprises and promote sustainable finance;(f)the promotion of economic, social and territorial cohesion; or(g)the sustainable and inclusive recovery of the Union economy after the COVID-19 crisis, including by providing capital support for SMEs that were negatively affected by the COVID-19 crisis and were not already in difficulty in State aid terms at the end of 2019, upholding and strengthening existing strategic value chains of tangible or intangible assets, developing new ones, and maintaining and reinforcing activities of strategic importance to the Union, including important projects of common European interest, in relation to critical infrastructure, whether physical or virtual, transformative technologies, game-changing innovations and inputs to businesses and consumers and supporting a sustainable transition; or(h)supporting investments contributing to the objectives of the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) referred to in Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2024/795 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2024/795 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 February 2024 establishing the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), and amending Directive 2003/87/EC and Regulations (EU) 2021/1058, (EU) 2021/1056, (EU) 2021/1057, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 223/2014, (EU) 2021/1060, (EU) 2021/523, (EU) 2021/695, (EU) 2021/697 and (EU) 2021/241 (OJ L, 2024/795, 29.2.2024, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/795/oj)..2.The InvestEU Programme has the following specific objectives:(a)supporting financing and investment operations related to sustainable infrastructure in the areas referred to in point (a) of Article 8(1);(b)supporting financing and investment operations related to research, innovation and digitisation, including support for the scaling up of innovative companies and the rolling out of technologies to market, in the areas referred to in point (b) of Article 8(1);(c)increasing the access to and the availability of finance for SMEs and for small mid-cap companies and to enhance the global competitiveness of such SMEs;(d)increasing access to and the availability of microfinance and finance for social enterprises, to support financing and investment operations related to social investment, competences and skills, and to develop and consolidate social investment markets, in the areas referred to in point (d) of Article 8(1).
Article 4Budget and amount of the EU guarantee1.The EU guarantee for the purposes of the EU compartment referred to in point (a) of Article 9(1) shall be EUR 26152310073 in current prices. It shall be provisioned at the rate of 40 %. The amount referred to in point (a) of the first subparagraph of Article 35(3) shall be also taken into account for contributing to the provisioning resulting from that provisioning rate.An additional amount of the EU guarantee may be provided for the purposes of the Member State compartment referred to in point (b) of Article 9(1) of this Regulation, subject to the allocation by Member States, pursuant to the provisions on the use of the ERDF, the ESF+, the Cohesion Fund and the EMFAF delivered through the InvestEU Programme laid down in a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund Plus, the Cohesion Fund, the Just Transition Fund and the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund and financial rules for those and for the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, the Internal Security Fund and the instrument for financial support for border management and visa (the "Common Provisions Regulation for 2021-2027") and the provisions on the use of the EAFRD delivered through the InvestEU Programme laid down in the CAP Strategic Plans Regulation, of the corresponding amounts.An additional amount of the EU guarantee may also be provided in the form of cash or guarantee by Member States for the purposes of the Member State compartment. The amount provided in cash shall constitute an external assigned revenue in accordance with the second sentence of Article 21(5) of the Financial Regulation.The contributions from third countries referred to in Article 5 of this Regulation shall also increase the EU guarantee referred to in the first subparagraph, providing a provisioning in cash in full in accordance with Article 218(2) of the Financial Regulation.2.An amount of EUR 14825000000 in current prices of the amount referred to in the first subparagraph of paragraph 1 of this Article shall be allocated for operations implementing measures referred to in Article 1 of Regulation (EU) 2020/2094 for the objectives referred to in Article 3(2) of this Regulation.An amount of EUR 11327310073 in current prices of the amount referred to in the first subparagraph of paragraph 1 of this Article shall be allocated for the objectives referred to in Article 3(2).The amounts referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph shall only be available as of the date referred to in Article 3(3) of Regulation (EU) 2020/2094.The indicative distribution of the EU guarantee for the purposes of the EU compartment is set out in Annex I to this Regulation. Where appropriate, the Commission may depart from the amounts referred to in Annex I by up to 15 % for each objective referred to in points (a) to (d) of Article 3(2). The Commission shall inform the European Parliament and the Council of any such departure.3.The financial envelope for the implementation of the measures provided in Chapters VI and VII shall be EUR 430000000 in current prices.4.The amount referred to in paragraph 3 may also be used for technical and administrative assistance for the implementation of the InvestEU Programme, such as preparatory, monitoring, control, audit and evaluation activities, including for corporate information technology systems.
Article 5Third countries associated to the InvestEU FundThe EU compartment of the InvestEU Fund referred to in point (a) of Article 9(1) of this Regulation and each of the policy windows referred to in Article 8(1) of this Regulation may receive contributions from the following third countries for the purpose of participation in certain financial products pursuant to Article 218(2) of the Financial Regulation:(a)members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) which are members of the EEA, in accordance with the conditions laid down in the Agreement on the European Economic Area;(b)acceding countries, candidate countries and potential candidates, in accordance with the general principles and general terms and conditions for the participation of those countries in Union programmes established in the respective framework agreements and Association Council decisions or in similar agreements and in accordance with the specific conditions laid down in agreements between the Union and those countries;(c)European Neighbourhood Policy countries, in accordance with the general principles and general terms and conditions for the participation of those countries in Union programmes established in the respective framework agreements and Association Council decisions or in similar agreements and in accordance with the specific conditions laid down in agreements between the Union and those countries;(d)other third countries, in accordance with the conditions laid down in a specific agreement covering the participation of the third country to any Union programme, provided that the agreement:(i)ensures a fair balance as regards the contributions and benefits of the third country participating in the Union programmes;(ii)lays down the conditions of participation in the programmes, including the calculation of financial contributions to individual programmes, and their administrative costs;(iii)does not confer on the third country any decision-making power in respect of the Union programme;(iv)guarantees the rights of the Union to ensure sound financial management and to protect its financial interests.The contributions referred to in point (d)(ii) of the first paragraph of this Article shall constitute assigned revenues in accordance with Article 21(5) of the Financial Regulation.
Article 6Implementation and forms of Union funding1.The EU guarantee shall be implemented in indirect management with bodies referred to in points (c)(ii), (c)(iii), (c)(v) and (c)(vi) of Article 62(1) of the Financial Regulation. Other forms of Union funding under this Regulation shall be implemented in direct or indirect management in accordance with the Financial Regulation, including grants implemented in accordance with Title VIII of the Financial Regulation and blending operations implemented in accordance with this Article as smoothly as possible, in a manner that ensures efficient and coherent support for Union policies.2.Financing and investment operations covered by the EU guarantee which form part of the blending operation combining support under this Regulation with support provided under one or more other Union programmes or covered by the EU ETS Innovation Fund shall:(a)be consistent with the policy objectives and comply with the eligibility criteria set out in the rules of the Union programme under which the support is decided;(b)comply with this Regulation.3.Blending operations that include a financial instrument that is fully financed by other Union programmes or by the EU ETS Innovation Fund without the use of the EU guarantee under this Regulation shall be consistent with the policy objectives and comply with the eligibility criteria set out in the rules of the Union programme under which the support is provided.4.In accordance with paragraph 2 of this Article, the non-repayable forms of support and financial instruments from the Union budget forming part of the blending operation referred to in paragraphs 2 and 3 of this Article shall be decided under the rules of the relevant Union programme and shall be implemented within the blending operation in accordance with this Regulation and with Title X of the Financial Regulation.The reporting relating to such blending operations shall also cover their consistency with the policy objectives and eligibility criteria set out in the rules of the Union programme under which the support is decided as well as their compliance with this Regulation.
Article 7Combination of portfolios1.Support from the EU guarantee under this Regulation, Union support provided through the financial instruments established by the programmes in the programming period 2014-2020 and Union support from the EU guarantee established by Regulation (EU) 2015/1017 may be combined in financial products to be implemented by the EIB or the EIF under this Regulation.2.By way of derogation from Article 19(2) and the second subparagraph of Article 16(1), the EU guarantee under this Regulation may also cover losses referred to in Article 19(2) in relation to the entire portfolio of financing and investment operations supported by the financial products referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article.Notwithstanding the objectives of the financial instruments referred to in paragraph 1, the provisions made to cover the financial liabilities arising from financial instruments referred to in paragraph 1 may be used to cover losses in relation to the entire portfolio of financing and investment operations supported by the financial products referred to in paragraph 1.3.Losses, revenues and repayments from financial products as referred to in paragraph 1, as well as potential recoveries, shall be attributed pro rata between the financial instruments and EU guarantees referred to in that paragraph providing the combined Union support to that financial product.By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, when support from the financial instruments is combined in a financial product in a subordinated position to the EU guarantee under this Regulation and/or EU guarantee established by Regulation (EU) 2015/1017, the losses, revenues and repayments from financial products as referred to in paragraph 1, as well as potential recoveries, may also be attributed on a non pro rata basis between the financial instruments and the EU guarantee under this Regulation and/or EU guarantee established by Regulation (EU) 2015/1017.4.The terms and conditions of the financial products referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, including the respective pro rata shares of losses, revenues, repayments and recoveries, shall be set out in the guarantee agreement referred to in Article 17.
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