Businesses that are eligible for financing through the EIB are those that cumulatively meet the following criteria:
- They are established, operate and plan to invest within Greece, without excluding companies that are established and operate in other EU member states.
- They are not active in non-eligible sectors, as such are described hereinbelow as “Businesses non-eligible for financing”
and
- They are either SMEs that employ up to 250 staff, in terms of Annual Work Units (AWU).
- Or they are MidCaps that employ from 250 up to 3,000 staff in terms of annual work units (AWU).
For a company to be eligible, its main activity must be eligible, i.e. it must not be included in the non-eligible codes classifying economic activity in the European Union (NACE), as provided by the EIB to the Bank and posted here.
Irrespective of the eligibility of the Economic Activity Code (NACE) relating to the main activity, undertakings involved in any way in the following activities are not eligible for financing by the EIB:
(i) activities targeting the production or trade of weapons and ammunition, explosives, equipment or infrastructures specifically designed for military use and equipment or infrastructure which result in limiting people’s individual rights and freedom (including prisons, detention centres of any kind) or in violation of human rights;
(ii) activities which give rise to environmental impacts that for the most part cannot be mitigated and/or counterbalanced (including but not limited to projects in protected areas, critical habitats and heritage sites);
(iii) activities that may be considered ethically or morally controversial or impinged on or forbidden by national legislation, including sexual trafficking and relevant infrastructures, services and means, animal testing (in line with Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 September 2010, on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes) and research on human cloning;
(iv) activities prohibited by national legislation (only where such legislation exists), for example Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), abortion clinics, nuclear energy, etc.;
Except for the aforesaid exceptions related to excluded sectors or activities, financial holding companies, whose sole economic activity is to hold and to manage portfolios of equity participations and/or investments in other companies, are not eligible.
Furthermore and irrespective of the main activity of the concerned business, any revenues generated by the following activities should not exceed more than 10% of the annual revenues of said business.
(i) activities targeting the production or facilitating the use of gambling and related equipment,
(ii) activities targeting tobacco production, manufacturing, promotion or specialist tobacco distribution, and activities facilitating the use of tobacco.
Furthermore, the company's investment plan to be financed should not concern:
(i) the purchase (or construction or renovation) of property for the purposes of sale or leasing the same to a third party, unless it is related to the construction of social housing, shopping malls and/ or offices for the purposes of leasing the same to third parties (such activities can be financed by exception following pre-approval of the EIB in any case);
(ii) consumption expenditures;
(iii) purely financial transactions not related to additional capital expenditure or the company’s business activity (including the trading of listed shares, other securities or any other financial product, the business’s refinancing and other) including change in the ownership structure (e.g. mergers and acquisitions); except in cases of change of generation (e.g. retirement of the previous owner) or staff-related changes of business status, which may be eligible if: a) they enable the company to continue its business activity, b) both parties involved in the sale meet the eligibility criteria and c) the total capital required for the acquisition of the business does not exceed five million Euro (€5,000,000), excluding own funds;
(iv) businesses with political or religious content;
(v) investments in the health sector with security units, closed psychiatric and/or correctional centres;
(vi) investments in the health sector that do not respect the common values and fundamental principles of EU health policy (sustainable solutions for society based on scientific evidence and equity of access);
(vii) desalination activities;
(viii) mining, processing, transport and storage of coal;
(ix) oil exploration and production, refining, transport, distribution and storage;
(x) gas exploration and production, liquefaction, regasification, transport, distribution and storage;
(xi) electricity generation exceeding the CO2 emission performance standard (i.e. 250 grams of CO2-equivalent per kWh), applicable to power plants and fossil fuel cogeneration, geothermal and hydroelectric installations with large tanks;
(xii) heat production/ combined cooling, heat & power generation and supply (CCHP, CHP), with the exception of:
(a) heat production using renewable fuels or “eligible combined generation”; Eligible combined generation has the following features:
(1) It is based on 100% Renewable Energy (RE), waste heat or a combination thereof or
(2) If based on <100% RES and the remaining part runs on gas (no other fossil fuel is eligible): total efficiency >85% where efficiency is defined as (heat generation + electricity) / Fuel consumption of gas > 85%,
(b) replacement of existing small and medium gas boilers with a capacity of up to 20 MWth unless it meets the minimum energy efficiency criteria, defined as A-rated boilers in the EU (applicable to <400kWth) or boilers of > 90% efficiency;
(c) restoration or expansion of existing district heating networks, which is eligible if CO2 emissions do not increase as a result of burning coal, peat, oil, gas or inorganic waste on an annual basis;
(d) new district heating networks or significant extensions of existing district heating networks, which are eligible if the network uses renewable energy sources at least by 50% or waste heat by 50% or heat cogeneration by 75% or CHP by 50%;
(xiii) construction of new buildings and significant restoration of existing buildings (more than 25% of the surface or 25% of the value of the building excluding land), which do not comply with the national energy standards set out in Directive (EU) 2018/844 on the energy performance of buildings (EPBD).
In addition, for projects related to energy/ heat generation using biomass, the following sustainability conditions for biomass products should be fulfilled:
(a) raw materials should come from non-contaminated biofuels within the EU or be certified for sustainability when originating from outside the EU;
(b) forest raw materials should be certified in line with international standards of sustainable forest certification;
(c) the use of palm oil products or raw materials from tropical forests/ protected areas is prohibited. Protected habitats include Natura 2000 sites as designated under EU law, habitats recognized under the Ramsar, Bern (Emerald Network) and Bonn Conventions, as well as areas defined or designated as protected areas by national governments.
To receive financing support by the EIB the project:
- must be economically, environmentally, technically, and financially sound;
- if it is part of a larger investment, it must be autonomous and technically viable on its own (not dependent on the realization of the rest of the investment).
For passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs), the following conditions apply:
(i) The vehicle should be used mainly for business purposes;
(ii) Based on the portfolio, the CO2 emissions from new passenger cars shall not exceed 145.2 gr/km, while the CO2 emissions of new LCVs shall not exceed 217gr/km, in accordance with the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP). If the vehicle was produced before 1 September 2019, a conversion factor of 1.21 and 1.24 from the new European Driving Cycle (NEDC) to WLTP applies for passenger cars and LCVs, respectively, to determine vehicle emissions. The borrower should keep in the file evidence of the CO2 emissions of each vehicle, at least until the date of full repayment of the EIB Loan.
