The contribution of the European Investment Fund Small Medium Sized Enterprises Guarantee Facility and of the Greek new Institution of SMEs Credit Guarantee Fund to the local Entrepreneurship and generally to the endogenous regional growth

In the first part of my paper I will analyze the Initiative of SMEs Guarantee Facility referring to the following topics: -Time evolution of the Initiative of SMEs Guarantee Facility. -The 4 special windows of SMEs Guarantee Facility: * Loan Guarantees * Micro-credit Guarantees * Equity Guarantees and * ICT Loan Guarantees. -Purpose, Selection of Intermediaries – Eligibility Criteria, Pre-Selection procedures(implementation strategy, submission and evaluation of proposals), Guarantee / Lending Institutions (intermediary’s activity, financial standing, operating principles, guarantee volumesn by product, purpose, maturity, geographical area, position in the market etc) and deals among the Member States of the E.U., of each one of the above mentioned types of Guarantee Facility. -EIF SMEs Guarantee products * Credit Insurance * Credit Enhancement (Securitisation) and * Structured Transactions (Structured Investment Vehicles). -Eligibility criteria, How to proceed and Related Deals among the EU Member States for each one of the above Guarantee Products. -The contribution of the aforementioned E.U Guarantee policy to the support of European Small and Medium Sized Firms and especially to their access to banking financing . The second part will be referred to the Greek experience related to the above EIF Initiatives focussing on the new Institution of SMEs Credit Guaranrtee Fund. More specifically I will examine: -The Greek Small and Medium Sized Firms and the financial difficulties that they face -The Institution of the Credit Guarantee Fund and its time evolution in Greece. -Terms and Conditions for the establishment of the SMEs Credit Guarantee Fund in Greece – The relevant institutional framework. -The operation of the above mentioned Institution and its objectives -Eligible conditions for guarantee/counter-guarantee service. -The contribution of the aforementioned Institution to the support of Greek Small and Medium Sized Firms and especially to their access to banking financing . -Problems of the relevant previous Institutions – proposals for effective implementation of the New one. -Third Community Support Framework (CSF)- Small and Medium Sized Enterprises and the Institution of SMEs Credit Guarantee Fund. -The participation of the Greek Banking System in the actions of 3rd CSF Regional Business Programmes/Plans for SMEs. In the last part of my paper, I will work out a comperative analysis between the EIF SMEs Facility and the Greek SMEs Credit Guarantee Fund focusing on the co-ordination of these two Institutions in E.U and national/regional implementation level. Moreover, a global assessment of the overall analysis, accompanied by the appropriate proposals will be carried out, especially in terms of contribution of the examined Initiatives to the support and development of SMEs and generally to the local entrepreneurship that play a crucial role in the endogenous regional growth process. Finally, as it is obvious, my paper will contain an appendix of tables and graphs and of course the relevant bibliography.