A facility for debt ('Debt facility') and a facility for equity ('Equity facility') will help overcome such problems by improving the financing and risk profiles of the RI activities concerned. This, in turn, will ease access by firms and other beneficiaries to loans, guarantees and other forms of risk finance; promote early-stage investment and the development of existing and new venture capital funds; improve knowledge transfer and the market in intellectual property; attract funds to the venture capital market; and, overall, help catalyse the passage from the conception, development and demonstration of new products and services t ...[+++]o their commercialisation.

The Equity facility will provide venture and/or mezzanine capital to individual enterprises in the early stage (start-up window).

This document includes 16 recommendations, including: launching an awareness campaign on the importance of female aspiring farmers; establishing tax leverages to promote financial security for retired producers; maintaining and developing a network of advisors on how to transfer and start a farm; implementing various measures to help train young people; improving financial assistance; and reviewing the quota transfer mechanisms to limit price increases.

We also will be instituting mechanisms to facilitate access to risk capital at all the life stages of new businesses, from start-up to maturity.

The funding: Member states are asked to approve a more efficient and effective use of the EU TEN budget line, which is providing €600 million per year to fund TEN project costs. The contribution of the TEN budget to priority projects has to be raised from 10% to 30% as proposed by the Commission (IP/03/1322) if it is to act as a leverage for the acceleration of projects. The EU 6th Framework Programme resources will also support key projects in the framework of the European Initiative for Growth, such as the launch of the European technology platforms. At the same time, the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group should adjust current instr ...[+++]uments to the needs of sectors within the Initiative for Growth and become more involved in risk sharing for priority investment projects. According to its latest proposal, the EIB is committed to provide: (i) a further €50 billion to TENs up to the end of the decade under a new Transport Infrastructure Facility; (ii) up to €40bn billion additional funding under the Innovation 2010 Initiative for investments in research, development and innovation; (iii) reinforce its Structures Finance Facility through a transfer of a higher share of its annual surpluses; (iv) support innovation through risk capital by allocating an additional €500 million to the ETF Start-up Facility of the European Investment Fund.

The EBRD and the Commission expect to be initiate the program during 1999 with at least 10 financial intermediaries.