The European Commission has concluded the deployment of the €1.549 billion European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD) Guarantee, by signing the remaining Guarantee Agreements.

The EFSD Guarantee is designed to leverage additional financing by allowing risk sharing with private investors, international financial institutions and development banks, fostering economic and social development in Sub Saharan Africa and EU Neighbourhood countries.

There has been a high level of uptake of the Guarantee in the EU’s Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood, with €519 million contracted to finance initiatives targeting partner countries in these regions.

The EFSD Guarantee will finance a large number of innovative solutions and approaches in different sectors such as renewable energy and energy efficiency, access to finance for Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises, local currency financing, municipal infrastructure and agriculture. To respond to the coronavirus pandemic, the EFSD Guarantee will support the Covax initiative that will bring affordable vaccination to our partner countries.

The EFSD Guarantee has the capacity to adapt to unprecedented changing conditions and will help the private sector in EU’s Southern and Eastern partner countries to better face the impact of the socio-economic crisis and to build more resilient economies.

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Press release