Division 3 Additionality

The EU guarantee shall be granted in support of operations that meet the criterion of providing additionality as defined in Article 5(1) of this Regulation.

The following general principles shall also apply:

1. (a)

   in order to avoid duplication of existing financial instruments, the EU guarantee may complement, be combined with, or strengthen or enhance existing Union programmes or other sources of Union funds or joint instruments;

2. (b)

   over the course of the EFSI investment period, investment supported by the EFSI shall in principle not crowd out the use of other Union financial instruments;

3. (c)

   attention shall be paid to the complementarity of new infrastructure and innovation window products focusing on SMEs and small mid-cap companies with existing EU financial instruments and EFSI financial instruments under the SME window so that the highest level of efficient use of financial resources is achieved. Nonetheless, a cumulative use of instruments shall be possible in particular in cases where the usual support is not sufficient to kick-start investmentsF1;

4. (d)

   F2the presence of one or more of the following features would typically lead to the classification of operations as EIB special activities:

   • subordination in relation to other lenders, including national promotional banks or institutions and private lenders,

   • participation in risk-sharing instruments where the position taken exposes the EIB to high-risk levels,

   • exposure to specific risks, such as country-, sector- or region-specific risks, particularly those experienced in less developed regions and transition regions, and/or risks associated with innovation, in particular in growth-, sustainability- and productivity-enhancing unproven technologies,

   • equity type characteristics, such as performance-linked payments, or

   • other identifiable aspects leading to higher risk exposure as per the credit risk guidelines of the EIB such as counterparty risk, limited security and recourse only to project assets for repayment.