S+T+ARTS e-Sessions: InvestEU answers questions on financing and investment opportunities for the cultural and creative sector
13 July, 2023 | 11:00-12:00 CET (registration needed)
Speakers: Polona Cigoj & Michael Feith
in this session, Polona Cigoj & Michael Feith, experts from InvestEU, answer STARTS Community questions on InvestEU, a programme that supports sustainable investment, innovation and job creation in Europe. It builds on the successful model of the Investment Plan for Europe, the Juncker Plan, bringing together, under one roof, the European Fund for Strategic Investments and 13 other EU financial instruments. For the period 2021-27, the programme aims to trigger more than €372 billion in additional investment. It supports loans and equity investments. It also provides finance for small and medium-sized enterprises and projects including in the cultural and creative sector. The InvestEU consists of:
- InvestEU Fund, which aims to mobilise public and private investment;
- InvestEU Advisory Hub, which provides technical support and assistance including capacity building to project developers and entities – private and public – helping with the preparation, development, structuring and implementation of investment projects;
- InvestEU Portal, which brings together investors and project promoters on a single EU-wide platform.
How InvestEU works in practice? What type of investments? How STARTS Community can benefit from it? These will be some of the questions addressed during this session.
About the expert
Michael Feith is a policy officer at the European Commission, where he deals with financing programs for infrastructure, enterprises and services. He is mainly involved in the set-up and the governance of the “InvestEU” programme. He is specifically experienced in sustainable and in social infrastructure. He is also head of the secretariat of the InvestEU Investment Committee, the body that approves the use of the EU guarantee for financing and investment operations.
Mr. Feith entered the European institutions in 1999 via the European Parliament, before moving to European Commission in 2001. He background is in IT and he holds as well a Master’s degree in European Politics.
Polona Cigoj is a Programme Assistant at the European Commission, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN). She is mainly involved in work on the InvestEU Portal – a platform designed to facilitate private financing for SMEs and startups – and in the general InvestEU communication activities. Polona entered the European institutions in 2021 as trainee at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), before moving to the European Commission in 2022.
She holds a Master’s degree in Business and Economics, and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations.
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