"IEGULDĪJUMS TAVĀ NĀKOTNĒ!"
Call for Expressions of Interest No. JER-003/2 to select Financial Intermediaries that will receive resources from the European Investment Fund acting through the JEREMIE Holding Fund for Latvia to implement the Funded Risk Sharing Financial Instrument.
Introduction
Applicant |
means a Financial Intermediary applying to this Call for Expression of Interest; |
Business Day |
means a day during which EIF Luxembourg office is open, and banks are open for general business in Riga and Luxembourg; |
Deadline |
Means 3rd of June 2009; |
Eligibility Criteria |
means the criteria with which the Expressions of Interest and the Applicants must comply with and which are listed in Annex 2 hereof; |
Expression of Interest |
means a proposal sent by an Applicant in response to this Call for Expression of Interest, within the Deadline, to be drafted in accordance with the template attached hereto as Annex 1(EN); (LV) ; |
JEREMIE |
means the initiative "Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises" launched by the Commission and EIF, as member of the European Investment Bank Group, in order to promote increased access to finance for the development of SMEs in the European Union; |
JHF |
means the EIF in its capacity acting through the JEREMIE Holding Fund for Latvia, appointed under the Funding Agreement; |
Operational Agreement |
means an agreement entered into between a Financial Intermediary and EIF on behalf of the JHF regarding a Financial Instrument on the basis of this Call for Expression of Interest and the selection process; |
Quality Assessment Criteria |
means the quality assessment criteria applied by EIF experts at the sole discretion of EIF to the suitability of the Applicant and/or the proposed Financial Instrument according to the business standards of EIF and which are listed in Annex 2 hereof; |
Selection Criteria |
means the Eligibility Criteria and the Quality Assessment Criteria; |
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises or SMEs |
means micro, small and medium-sized enterprises as defined in the Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC. |
Financial Instrument | Indicative capital allocation (millions EUR) | Applicable annexes |
Funded Risk Sharing Financial Instrument | 52 | Annex 2 (Funded Risk Sharing Financial Instrument: Description and Selection Criteria) |
The Financial Intermediaries may express their interest for a contribution up to the total amount allocated by the JHF to the Financial Instrument.
The indicative capital allocated to the Financial Instrument as well as the amounts contributed by the JHF to the selected Financial Intermediary may be increased, at EIF’s sole discretion, if more funding becomes available during the JHF implementation process.
4. Expression of Interest
A template for the Expression of Interest is attached hereto as Annex 1(EN); (LV)
The Expression of Interest includes the Applicant's identification, the project description, the supporting documents, the declaration of absence of conflict of interest and the statement regarding situations of exclusion.
No later than 10 Business Days before the Deadline, the Applicants may request clarifications regarding the Call for Expression of Interest or the nature of the Financial Instrument. Such requests must indicate the Call for Expression of Interest reference number and the name of the Applicant and shall be submitted in English via email to:
Regional Business Development Unit
European Investment Fund
e-mail: info.rbd@eif.org
EIF will, in principle, not contact any Applicant prior to the Deadline, unless it considers it necessary to clarify issues of a mere technical nature. However, should EIF discover any errors, inaccuracies, omissions or any other type of clerical defect in the text of the Call for Expression of Interest before the Deadline, EIF will correct the text and inform accordingly.
5. Language
The Expressions of Interest, including the submitted documents, shall be in English and Latvian. In case of discrepancies between the English version and the Latvian one, the English version shall prevail.
6. Submission of Expression of Interest
The Expressions of Interest shall be submitted on or before the Deadline both by (i) e-mail and (ii) registered mail or professional courier service. The Expressions of Interest sent by registered mail or professional courier service shall consist of a closed single package, and shall contain the Expression of Interest, together with its attachments, in paper form and in removable electronic storage medium (e.g. CD-ROM).
The Deadline for the submission of Expressions of Interest is the 3rd of June, 2009.
Postal Address:
European Investment Fund
Attention: Regional Business Development Unit
96 Boulevard Konrad Adenauer
L-2968 Luxembourg
LUXEMBOURG
The outer envelope (package) shall indicate the following:
"Expression of Interest - Reference number of the Call (No. JER-004/2) - Not to be opened by the reception - To be passed without opening to Regional Business Development Unit".
E-mail Address: info.rbd@eif.org (To the attention of the Regional Business Development Unit)
7. Selection process
When selecting Financial Intermediaries, EIF is committed to respecting fundamental principles, such as the principles of:
- equal treatment
- non-discrimination
- confidentiality
- transparency
The Expressions of Interest will be examined by the EIF using professional analysis and judgment, taking into account the Selection Criteria.
The EIF will reject those Expressions of Interest which do not comply with the Eligibility Criteria. Financial Intermediaries, whose application is rejected because of non-compliance with any of the elements reflected in the statement regarding situations of exclusion (Appendix 4 to Annex 1 hereto), may not present themselves for consideration in subsequent Calls for the Expression of Interest unless it is specifically evidenced that the reason for the exclusion no longer exists.
The expiration of the Deadline shall not prevent EIF, in limited circumstances if deemed necessary, from requesting and receiving from Applicants clarifications on issues of a mere technical or formal nature, provided that such clarifications shall neither provide an opportunity to the respective Applicants to unduly improve their applications nor otherwise distort the competition between the Applicants.
Applicants which are not excluded according to the Eligibility Criteria will go through the EIF selection process based on the Quality Assessment Criteria. The further selection based on the Quality Assessment Criteria, and the due diligence process if any, follows the standard procedures and guidelines applied by EIF to its business.
In any phase of the selection process, EIF reserves itself full discretion to consider Financial Intermediaries and no Applicant has any claim or other right or may expect to be ultimately selected for financial support by the JHF.
Similarly, any negotiation of terms and conditions of Operational Agreements by no means entails any obligation for the EIF and/or the JHF to enter into such Operational Agreement with the relevant Financial Intermediaries.
Financial Intermediaries which do not receive contributions from the JHF are informed accordingly; EIF is under no obligation to communicate any motivation of the refusal to consider a Financial Intermediary for support from the JHF.
8. Operational Provisions
The Financial Intermediaries, with which Operational Agreements will be eventually signed, shall be required to comply with the EIF anti-fraud policy and with the relevant monitoring, reporting, publicity and auditing obligations required by the EU regulations applicable to ERDF and by the Funding Agreement. Such obligations are briefly described in the relevant Financial Instrument description documents, and will be mentioned in the relevant Operational Agreement.
ANNEXES
- Annex 1(EN); (LV) to the Call of expression of interest.
- Annex 2 Funded Risk Sharing Financial Instrument: Description and Selection Criteria
Notes:
1. Such Operational Programme approved by the European Commission Decision K (2007) 4466 of 24 November 2007.
2. Council Regulation (EC) No. 1083/2006 of 11 July 2006 laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund and repealing Regulation (EC) No. 1260/1999 (Official Journal of the European Union L210 of 31.07.2006).
3.Official Journal of the European Union L371 of 27.12.2006.
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