The event was focused on external financing in sustainable agriculture and food security. It gathered about a hundred participants for a whole day and among them, 70 European companies and operators.
Following a comprehensive introduction on external financing and modalities about the European procurement rules, the Chief of Agriculture Unit at DG DEVCO (Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development) presented the state of play as well as the strategy and goals of the European Commission as regards to agriculture through the EU external aid instruments and detailed some opportunities that will be aimed at EU companies.
On the 2014-2020 period, more than 8.8 billions euros (as much as 80% through regional instruments and 20% through thematic instruments) will be dedicated to projects int the field of sustainable agriculture and food security. More than 60 countries include agriculture in their priority sectors. Part of these funds will be distributed through procurement to which EU companies could submit a tender. The Head of Agriculture unit insisted on the importance to get the private sector involved into development and especially into the investment aspect of development. He gave a quick snapshot at the new AgriFi initiative whose governance and implementation were not yet defined at the time of the event. The envelope dedicated to Agrifi will amount to 40 M€ at the first stage and could reach up to 200 M€ according to future results ; AgriFi will particularly rely on value chains. This initiative would allow investors to take wider risks notably through various modalities available through blending. Private investors, European financial institutions and Member States agencies as well as the civil society would be associated to the Initiative that would focus on small and middle size projects.
This presentation was followed by four other presentations by different units of the Commission in charge of geographical programmes – Development and Cooperation Instrument (DCI), European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI- South/East) and Instrument for Pre-adhesion (IPA) – for every one of which speakers identified countries benefiting from a European support in the field of agriculture, either at the institutional and business levels or on projects that may be of interest of EU operators.
The second part of the conference focused on implementation according to the new 2015 version of PRAG (Practical Guide to Contract Procedures for EU External Actions) and through blending modalities for financing.
As far as the blending facilities were concerned, the Commission acknowledged that up to now, the agricultural sector and the private sector were not fully considered as focal sectors per se in the external aid programmes (ie. less than 10% of projects have been allowed to the private sector). This situation could change given that blending envelopes will be substantially increased.
The last presentation was made by EIB. The financial institution promoted its sovereign loans for value chains and gave the example of horticultural chain in Moldavia that was granted a blending of 120 M€ loan and 8.2 M€ grant.
The afternoon was dedicated to business-to-business meetings between the different European companies and operators. DEVCO and EIB Helpdesks would provide individual information to the participants.
The next SEMINAR will focus on the energy window of the European Union Global Gateway strategy. It will take place IN PERSON in Brussels on Wednesday, June 28, 2023.
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The European Global Gateway Strategy was launched in December 2021 by the European Commission and the EU High representative for foreign affairs and security policy with the objective of boosting smart, clean and secure links in digital, energy and transport sectors and to strengthen health, education and research systems across the world.
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The new Practical Guide (PRAG) introduces some changes that may impact the way of European companies participate in tenders and call for proposals. The webinar will take place on 30th June at 10h.00-11h:15. Finland, Italy and Spain are the main organizing countries of the webinar and a significant number of Member states organizations co-organize the event. The platform will be Webex. For those companies that cannot access to the session the same day, we plan to record it in order to make it available on this web page.