Romania's Ministry of European Investment and Projects (MIPE) and the European Investment Fund (EIF) have launched a call for the selection of financial intermediaries to allocate resources from the Recovery Fund, an investment financed by 400 million euros under Component 9 of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) "Support for the private sector, research, development and innovation."
According to a MIPE press release on Monday, the call is intended for fund management teams, incorporated or not at the time of application submission. The selection will be made by experts of the European Investment Fund according to the criteria and procedures that are described in the call, and each allocation proposal will be subject to the approval of the Investment Committee of the Recovery Equity Fund (REF).
Applications can be submitted continuously until December 2025 to ref@eif.org.
The ministry says that the call is not designed for companies interested in obtaining equity capital, as they will be able to apply later to the selected intermediaries, Agerpres.ro informs.
"The launch of the selection of financial intermediaries under the PNRR equity investment instrument represents an essential stage both in order to reach the next relevant milestones under the PNRR and, more importantly, in attracting resources for investing in SMEs, mid-cap companies and infrastructure projects (energy efficiency or renewable energy). Enjoying the expertise of the European Investment Fund partners, we hope that soon new equity funds will invest in the Romanian economy and that new success stories will be created through these financial instruments," says Minister of European Investment and Projects Marcel Bolos.
The call is available on the dedicated page on the website of the European Investment Fund at https://www.eif.org/what_we_do/resources/rrf-romania/index.
Under the investment strategy, the selected intermediaries will pledge to invest an amount at least equal to the total amount contracted from the EIF under PNRR in Romania, in SMEs, midcaps (companies with less than 3,000 employees) and infrastructure projects (energy efficiency or renewable energy) in Romania. Investment can be made in the form of equity and quasi-equity.
The funds' commitment of PNRR resources must take place until the middle of 2026, according to the relevant PNRR milestones. It is estimated that resources will be allocated to approximately 20 national or regional equity funds, including private equity, venture capital, mezzanine capital, technology transfer, pre-IPO and infrastructure funds.
Funding will be granted in compliance with the state aid rules described in the call or in state aid schemes, in compliance with the rules regarding the application of the do no significant harm principle, as the case may be.