In the face of the crisis, the EIB has "supported in Italy, from 2006 to today, through collaboration with the Italian banking system, almost 60 small and medium-sized enterprises, granting them very attractive interest rates and even longer than normal maturities" . This is the underlining of the vice president of the European Investment Bank, Dario Scannapieco, heard by the Senate's Industry Committee.
The scenario outlined by the EIB representative is tinged with gray: “The economic recovery in Europe is slowing down, even if there is no talk of a recession yet – he said -. The risks remain high: the debt crisis is associated with a crisis of confidence in the European institutions. After a rebound following the Lehman Brothers crisis, there was a recovery that is now at risk due to the debt crisis”, Scannapieco insisted. With consequences on the real economy and on small and medium-sized enterprises "which are an investment priority for the EIB: they contribute a very significant part to employment throughout Europe", since they make up 95% of European companies.
But the actual response to the credit question remains limited. The percentage of businesses that have not had full access to credit is still high, albeit slightly decreasing: 30% in Europe and Italy, with a peak of 40% in Spain. Banks continue to adjust credit conditions, even as the rate of adjustment is slowing. But "the European banking system is not yet out of the crisis - said Scannapieco - and in these conditions, credit to small and medium enterprises is clearly penalised". And therefore the EIB is “developing synergies with the other interventions that have been made in Italy to support this important sector of the economy. We are now working on supply chains, on business networks, to ensure – explained Scannapieco to the members of the Industry commission – that small and medium-sized enterprises can collaborate more in some phases of the value chain.
"So the EIB would like to provide support to those small and medium-sized companies that seek to join forces to become a little stronger". And the strategies and challenges of the EIB for the near future are summarized in five points: 1) continue to support small and medium-sized enterprises by optimizing the combination of instruments available, both national and EU (and in this sense the EIB participates in the group of work of the Ministry of Economic Development); 2) intensify collaboration with Abi, Confindustria, Sace, Cassa depositi e prestiti; 3) to promote growth and aggregation between companies; 4) to support research and innovation, also through the development of tools aimed at sharing the credit risk with the banking system: 5) to encourage the internationalization projects of Italian companies through the definition of specific credit instruments and the ability to provide multi-country support
