BBBA EU FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES for BULGARIAN SMEs in a NUTSHELL

EU FUNDING? Three types: EIB and EIF manage EC funds using financial instruments through equity funds and intermediaries. Grants via Operational Programmes managed by Ministries Re-use of funds disbursed via financial instruments fund managers eventually repay money

TWO MAIN OPTIONS FOR SMES Provide a percentage of a grant OR Receive loans under favourable conditions Grants and funding instruments can be used together: e.g.. Use loan to finance % of grant and project until grant payment received at the end of the project

THE MONEY, EUR9.8 billion has been allocated to Bulgaria for the period 2014 to EUR 7.6 billion has been allocated to Bulgaria for Cohesion policy EUR 3.57 billion for the ERDF EUR 2.28 billion for the Cohesion Fund 1.52 billion for the ESF % of new 314 billion EFSI for SME’s and Youth Employment

CONSIDERATION Only be considered as part of the long term development of company No quick fixes are on offer! Considerable amount of work Time – Periods 2007/2013, 2014 /2020 Thorough Approach and Patience can lead to big rewards

CONSIDERATION Does my company qualify as an SME? To count as an SME, your organisation must be engaged in an economic activity and must have: Fewer than 250 employees; and An annual turnover of no more than €50 million and/or an annual balance sheet of no more than €43 million. SMEs are further divided for the process of application for EU Funding into: Category of the enterpriseMaximum net income MICRO enterprise 175, 000 BGN SMALL enterprise 750,000 BGN MEDIUM enterprise 3,000,000 BGN

CONSIDERATION Does the company have ? Clear objectives for funding requested Detailed Business Plan Technical and Financial Proposal A good accountant and detailed company accounts from the previous three years Projections for increased profits and competitiveness for next two years Declarations, guarantees, and certificates

THE NEXT STEPS On basis of business plan – do you need a grant, a loan, a guarantee? If grant, search for calls for proposals If loan attend surgery with intermediary bank who make recommendations as to which programme is most suitable for the needs of your project If not sure ask advice from intermediary, consult or consultancy

WHAT IS AVAILABLE? GRANTS VIA OPERATIONAL PROGRAMMES OPIC – OP Innovation and Competitiveness PRIORITY 1. Technological development and innovation 1.1. Technological development and innovations ―smart growth PRIORITY 2. Entrepreneurship and Capacity for SMEs growth; 2.1.Access to finance for supporting entrepreneurship 2.2.Capacity for SMEs to grow

WHAT IS AVAILABLE? SESG- Operational Programme "Science and Education for Smart Growth“ PRIORITY AXIS 1 Research and technological development PRIORITY AXIS 2 Education and lifelong learning PRIORITY AXIS 3 Educational environment for active social inclusion

WHAT IS AVAILABLE? OPHRD - Operational Programme Human Resources Development OP HRD is set upon the following three pillars: Higher employment rate and better quality employment. Reducing poverty and promoting social inclusion. Modernization of public policies. These broad priorities include job creation, mobility and education, as well as training.

WHAT IS AVAILABLE? OPRG - Operational Programme Regions in Growth 39 urban centres are the main target group of the Programme. Main priorities: Sustainable urban development Energy efficiency measures in public and residential buildings Roads and integrated urban transport Regional health, social and educational infrastructure Regional tourism

WHAT IS AVAILABLE? OPE – Operational Programme Environment Water Waste Natura 2000 and biodiversity Flood and landslide risk prevention and management Improvement of ambient air quality

WHAT IS AVAILABLE? Successful Projects still open under OP Competitiveness 2007 – 2013 JEREMIE - improves the access to finance for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) through various financial engineering instruments. Publishing, production of movies or television programmes, sound recording and music publishing, or broadcasting and telecommunications or activities in the field of information technologies, or information services, or research and development.

WHAT IS AVAILABLE? COSME COSME is the EU programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), running from 2014 to 2020 with a planned budget of €2.3bn. COSME will support SMEs in four areas: Improving access to finance for SMEs in the form of equity and debt Improving access to markets Improving framework conditions for the competitiveness and sustainability of Union enterprises Promoting entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial culture

WHAT IS AVAILABLE? COSME 2 Available under COSME are: Loan Guarantee Facility (LGF) Equity Facility for Growth (EFG) Access to Markets Support to SME Internationalisation An agreement between the European Investment Fund (EIF) and Cibank has been reached by which 1000 Bulgarian SMEs will be eligible to receive EUR 100 M in loans under COSME. The agreement foresees that in the next three years Cibank will provide a total of BGN 200 M in loans to Bulgarian SMEs (October 2015).

WHAT IS AVAILABLE? InnovFin Programme - HORIZON 2020 Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding (2014 to 2020) Anticipated new EFSI fund contribution to SMEs and Youth Employment will be channeled through this fund Few applications from Bulgaria to HORIZON 2020 so far

WHAT IS AVAILABLE? HORIZON Large projects, partnerships or consortium required. Loans, guarantees, research and development, equity for start ups and early phases Horizon 2020 Programme Sections include: Excellent Science Industrial Leadership Societal Challenges Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation Science with and for Society

WHAT IS AVAILABLE? The SME Initiative The SME Initiative is a joint financial instrument of the EC and the EIB Group which aims to stimulate SME financing by providing partial risk cover for SME loan portfolios of originating financial institutions. In July 2015 Bulgaria joined this New SME Initiative and 102 million Euro of ESIF has been allocated to support a guarantee facility to support SME lending through Bulgarian banks. This initiative will be administered by EIF in close cooperation with EIB

Which are the PRIORITY REGIONS? There are six NUTS 2 regions 1. North Western Region comprising the districts of Vidin, Vratsa, Lovech, Montana and Pleven; 2. North Central Region comprising the districts of Veliko Tarnovo, Gabrovo, Razgrad, Ruse and Silistra; 3. North Eastern Region comprising the districts of Varna, Dobrich, Targovishte and Shumen; 4. South Eastern Region comprising the districts of Burgas, Sliven, Stara Zagora and Yambol; 5. South Western Region comprising the districts of Blagoevgrad, Kyustendil, Pernik, Greater Sofia metropolitan area and Sofia; 6. South Central Region comprising the districts of Kardzhali, Pazardzhik, Plovdiv, Smolyan and Haskovo.

SUCCESS STORIES MODERNISATION AND AUTOMATION Total project costs: lev Total value of grants paid: lev What was achieved with the investment  improving the environment due to lower unit consumption of electricity and hydraulic oil;  improvement of working conditions - lower noise and easier servicing of machinery;  improved productivity;  expansion of the product portfolio;  improved quality of manufactured products;  reduced production costs;  reducing product costs;  expansion of market positions by conducting marketing research on consumer needs and market opportunities for molded products and develop a marketing strategy

SUCCESS STORIES ISO Certification, Automation, Packaging, Labelling Total project costs: lev Total value of grants paid: lev The Aim of the Investment  Automate the production of liquid and powder products;  Increase production capacity dosage, packaging ad labeling products;  Perform consecutive investment in the closing of the production cycle by expanding domestic production of packaging products,  Improve the quality and production control What was achieved with the investment  Equipment purchased for all areas of production

SUCCESS STORIES Modernization of the Production of Glass Products Total project costs: lev Total value of grants paid: lev The Aim of the Investment Increasing the competitiveness of "Etikom" Ltd., through Investment support for the modernization of the production process, leading to increased productivity and diversified production activities What was achieved with the investment Equipment purchased for the project: Equipment for glass cutting, equipment production framework, automatic vertical line of glass, automated robot bonding and line kantoshlifovane glass.

SUCCESS STORIES Modernizing the Production of Furniture Expansion of an enterprise in the modular furniture industry Total amount of the investment made: BGN (EUR ) Total amount of the provided loans guaranteed under the JEREMIE initiative: BGN (EUR ) What was achieved with the investment? The new production facilities include three main rooms – a warehouse for materials, production and packaging workshop. The expansion of the production facilities constitutes a kind of synergy with another project of the company implemented with co-financing under Operational Programme “Competitiveness” for the introduction of a new production line which will also be located in the new production base.

SUCCESS STORIES Cloud-based video streaming platform providing an easy and convenient way to watch online videos on TV, instantly and free of charge The Investment Innovative startup companies financed by LAUNCHub in 2012, under the JEREMIE Acceleration & Seed Instrument. EUR 200,000 LAUNCHub investment What was achieved with the investment? By the end of 2012 iMediaShare had 1 US patent granted and 1 in review and had already received 4 innovation awards. In the same year, there were over 3.5 million downloads from the site and more than 1 million active users each month, growing at 12% month on month. Over 10 million media files are streamed from this site per month.

MANAGING AUTHORITIES AND INTERMEDIARIES Contact details for the Managing Authorities for OPs are in the brochure A list of Funding Intermediaries in Bulgaria based on the previous funding period 2007 to 2013 is provided. This list will be updated in the second quarter of 2016 when all the Intermediaries have been contracted for the current period 2014 to 2020