A new dedicated equity initiative on the blue economy was launched today by Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius, and the Deputy Director-General of the European Investment Fund (EIF) Roger Havenith as part of InvestEU. InvestEU Blue Economy will mobilise A further 500 million is to be spent on this. euros from European Union funds financed by the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund. In addition, the European Investment Bank Group (EIB) and InvestEU will assist.

The InvestEU Blue Economy initiative will make risk finance available totalling €1.5 billion euros for innovative and sustainable SMEs and start-ups in the blue economy, through financial intermediaries. The EIB will shortly publish the call for expressions of interest. The call builds on the success of the BlueInvest Fund, a pilot project under the European Fund for Strategic Investments.

Commissioner Sinkevičius said: "The first phase of the platform accelerated innovation and investment sustainable technologies of blue economy. To deepen and expand these activities, we are now launching the second stage of BlueInvest. It will even offer better services to European small and medium-sized enterprises and investors. At the same time, it will support the objectives of the European Green Deal."

In addition to financing early-stage businesses, SMEs and growing enterprises, the BlueInvest platform, the EIF and the EIB will provide capacity-building support and advisory for financial intermediaries.